Company Description
We are a leading provider of fiber optic subsystems and network performance
test systems which enable high-speed data communications over local area
networks, or LANs, and storage area networks, or SANs. We are focused on
providing high-performance, reliable, value-added optical subsystems for
networking and storage equipment manufacturers that develop and market systems
based on Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel protocols. Our line of optical
subsystems supports a wide range of network applications, transmission speeds,
distances and mediums. We also provide unique network performance test systems
which assist networking and storage equipment manufacturers in the efficient
design of reliable, high-speed networking systems and the testing and monitoring
of the performance of these systems.
The growing number of users accessing networks, the need to accommodate
higher-bandwidth traffic and the increasingly mission-critical nature of data
networking and storage networking has created the need for a new generation of
high-speed, high-performance networking and storage systems that rely on fiber
optic transmission technology. Many of these systems operate over Gigabit
Ethernet-based LANs, Fibre Channel-based SANs or extended versions of these
networks. These systems utilize fiber optic subsystems which enable them to
transmit data at very high speeds with high accuracy, often over long distances.
In addition to creating a need for optical subsystems, complex protocols such as
Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel have resulted in a demand for advanced
network performance test systems. As these protocols have emerged, system
testing has become more difficult, requiring increasingly sophisticated and
specialized test systems capable of capturing data at high speeds, filtering the
data and identifying various types of intermittent errors and other network
problems.
The development and manufacture of high quality, cost-effective fiber optic
subsystems for LANs and SANs present a number of significant technical
challenges. Data integrity, reliability and standards compliance become
increasingly difficult at high transmission speeds. Additionally, manufacturers
require optical subsystems which support a broad range of network applications.
To date, we believe that only a limited number of companies have developed the
specialized expertise required to engineer fiber optic subsystems and network
performance test systems which meet the requirements of manufacturers of
high-speed data networking and storage systems. Our optical subsystems and
network performance test systems are designed to provide the following key
benefits to systems manufacturers:
VALUE-ADDED FUNCTIONS AND INTELLIGENCE. Our high-speed fiber optic
subsystems are engineered to deliver value-added functionality and intelligence.
For example, many of our optical subsystems include a microprocessor with
proprietary embedded software that allows customers to monitor the optical
performance of each port on their systems in real time. Additionally, many of
our subsystems are engineered to automatically recognize different versions of
the Fibre Channel protocol and to interoperate with legacy systems. Real-time
monitoring and interoperability are particularly important in the Gigabit
Ethernet LAN and Fibre Channel SAN markets where reliability and time to market
are critical. Our test systems also contain value-added software functions such
as data capture, data generation and error generation.
HIGH LEVEL OF DATA INTEGRITY. Through the use of advanced packaging and
circuit design, our optical subsystems deliver a high level of data integrity,
which results in precise transmission of data at very high speeds over varying
distances. This high level of data integrity allows our subsystems to operate
reliably over a wide range of temperatures and other field conditions which we
believe enables our customers to design and deliver more robust systems.
HIGH RELIABILITY. We design all of our subsystems to provide the high
reliability and flexibility required by manufacturers for mission-critical
applications such as real-time SAN storage backup and LAN backbone switching.
Some of our products have a statistically-determined mean time to failure of 40
million hours. In addition, because our subsystems exceed the FCC standards for
electromagnetic interference emissions, we offer manufacturers greater
flexibility in the design of their systems.
BROAD OPTICAL SUBSYSTEM PRODUCT LINE. We offer a broad line of optical
subsystems which operate at varying protocols, speeds, fiber types, voltages,
wavelengths and distances and are available in a variety of industry standard
packaging configurations, or form factors. The breadth of our optical subsystems
product line is important to many of our customers who manufacture a wide range
of networking products for diverse applications.
BROAD TEST SYSTEM PRODUCT LINE. We offer a broad line of test systems to
assist our customers in efficiently designing reliable, high-speed networking
systems and testing and monitoring the performance of these systems. We believe
our test systems enable our customers to focus their attention on the
development of new products, reduce overall development costs and speed time to
market.
Our goal is to be the optical subsystem and network performance test system
provider of choice for multiple protocols and network applications. We intend to
maintain our technological leadership through continual enhancement of our
existing products and the development of new products as evolving technology
permits higher speed transmission of data, with greater capacity, over longer
distances. We plan to leverage our relationships with our existing customers as
they enter new, high-speed data communications markets and to expand our sales
and marketing organization in order to establish new relationships with other
key data and storage networking manufacturers. We intend to capitalize on our
customers' satisfaction and our service-oriented approach to take advantage of
cross-selling opportunities. We also plan to expand our international sales
efforts.
We sell our products to leading networking and storage equipment
manufacturers such as 3Com, EMC, Emulex, IBM, Newbridge Networks and Sun
Microsystems, as well as emerging manufacturers such as Brocade Communications
and Extreme Networks. For the fiscal year ended April 30, 1999, we had revenues
of $35.5 million and net income of $3.1 million. For the quarter ended July 31,
1999, we had revenues of $13.9 million and net income of $1.3 million.
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