QLogic Introduces VI Over Fibre Channel To Improve Performance For Networked Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Users

 

HP, NEC and Fujitsu-Siemens TPC-C Benchmarks Feature Fibre Channel User Networks

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., March 4, 2003- QLogic Corp. (NASDAQ:QLGC), the company that powers storage area networks (SANs), today announced that its Fibre Channel chips and SANblade* host bus adapters support the standards-based Virtual Interface (VI) protocol. Servers with Fibre Down* on motherboards or with Fibre Channel HBAs now have the ability to improve response time for users of applications built on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 databases. The new products also position Fibre Channel as a higher performance alternative to IP for other low-latency networking applications such as clustering. Supported by Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3, the performance benefits of the SANblade QLA2350 HBA in SQL Server applications are documented in TPC-C benchmark tests performed by HP, NEC and Fujitsu-Siemens.

"Early blade servers supported edge-of-the-network applications such as Web serving, media streaming, load balancing, caching, and firewall protection," said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp. "Now with powerful processors and connectivity to Fibre Channel SANs, new HP ProLiant BL p-Class blade servers are equipped to support core business applications in the data center."

"Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 offers customers several enhancements including support for the QLogic Virtual Interface protocol," said James Hamilton, general manager for SQL Server at Microsoft Corp. "The VI technology in the SQL Server networking layer reduces CPU consumption per transaction on the server and client systems, and improves performance."

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Support for the SANblade QLA2350 SQL Server 2000 scales to the performance levels required to support the largest Web sites, Enterprise Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) systems and Data Warehousing systems.

SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 introduces support for the VI-enabled SANblade QLA2350 Fibre Channel controller. Information about SP3 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/2000/sp3.asp.

HP, NEC and Fujitsu-Siemens TPC-C Benchmark Results Available at TPC.org The Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) is a non-profit corporation founded to define transaction processing and database benchmarks and to disseminate objective, verifiable TPC performance data to the industry. TPC-C performance is measured in new-order transactions per minute. The primary metrics are the transaction rate (tpmC), the associated price per transaction ($/tpmC), and the availability date of the priced configuration. This listing of results on the TPC web site contains a summary of the system tested, the throughput and price/performance, the total system cost, the operating system, and the database software running on the system, providing valuable and objective comparative information for end users.

The performance benefits of the SANblade QLA2350 HBA in SQL Server 2000 applications are documented in TPC-C benchmark tests performed by HP, NEC and Fujitsu-Siemens and available on-line at: www.tpc.org.

HP Proliant DL 760-G2 8P (8 Processors)
In a test simulating 89,000 users, the HP test configuration, including QLogic SANblade* adapters and QLogic SANbox2* switches, delivered 111,805.22 tpmC and a price per transaction of $7.97/tpmC. The tested configuration is expected to be available May 4, 2003. Full test details can be found at www.tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_result_detail.asp?id=103022001.

Fujitsu-Siemens Primergy T850 (8 Processors)
In a test simulating 68,000 users, the Fujitsu-Siemens test configuration, including SANblade adapters, delivered 84,598.42 tpmC and a price per transaction of EUR 6.96/tpmC. The tested configuration is expected to be available April 6, 2003. Full details can be found at Virtual Interface Architecture For Low Latency Networking
In December 1996, several companies established the VI Architecture consortium to study methods for lowering the excessive overhead of traditional I/O software for data center networks. More than 100 hardware and software vendors defined the version 1.0 VI Architecture standard. The VI Architecture defines how an agent initiates the connection between two nodes, much like other types of network connections. After initiation, a direct connection between user agent memory (or virtual interface protocol layer) and the hardware allows a direct memory copy between two nodes using the VI communication channel, as depicted in Figure 2. These communications can be performed directly by memory-mapped I/O or by using additional layers to adapt from the VI structure to internal data formats.

Powered by QLogic
QLogic technology powers SAN solutions from the world's leading storage vendors including Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Network Appliance, Quantum, Sony, StorageTek and Sun. The industry depends on QLogic to simplify SANs with native Fibre Channel support designed into all major operating systems and to innovate new ways to network storage through new technologies like Virtual Interface (VI), Fibre Down(tm) and iSCSI

About QLogic (www.qlogic.com <http://www.qlogic.com>)
QLogic Corporation (Nasdaq:QLGC <http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=qlgc&d=t>) simplifies the process of networking storage for OEMs, resellers and system integrators with the only end-to-end infrastructure in the industry, consisting of award-winning controller chips, host bus adapters, network switches and management software to move data from the storage device through the fabric to the server. QLogic designs and produces solutions based on all storage network technologies including SCSI, iSCSI, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel. A member of the S&P 500 Index, QLogic was recently ranked number 25 on Forbes' Best 200 Small Companies and number 20 on Fortune's 100 Fastest Growing Companies.

Note: All QLogic-issued press releases appear on the company's web site (www.qlogic.com). Any announcement that does not appear on the QLogic web site has not been issued by QLogic.

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