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Technology Stocks : The New QLogic (ANCR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pigboy who wrote (24166)	9/22/1999 10:40:00 AM
From: J Fieb	Respond to of 29386

Pigboy, Would INTC have to build it's own server farms if SUNW didn't have so much of the internet Biz? Some INTC links for those who want to look around..... pdf document on LAST yrs. VIA clustering demo. Nice drawings, all the same players as this yr, Dell, Clariion, IBM,gigaswitch but without the FC switch(ANCR)......so at some time in the future may see this yrs. writeup? developer.intel.com A search on "server farms" on INTC site gets you this.... intel.com that approximately one-twentieth of the number of the servers required to build out the Internet infrastructure have been deployed lifetime to date. That's a pretty staggering number if you stop to think about it. We are headed for a very visible time horizon where we will be shipping more -- as an industry we'll be shipping more than ten million servers per year. Any help on translating this portion of the text? Can't quite put it all together...................good for FC, bad? Anything for ANCR here? What you see on your screen on the left is an LSI prototype storage subsystem, and they basically have three prototypes we're going to demonstrate here today. We have SCSI JBOD storage subsystem, a SCSI RAID storage subsystem and a fiber channel JBOD subsystem. And they're all using prototype ASIC silicon that Intel developed to validate the architecture with firmware to emulate either a host end function or a target end function. JOHN MINER: So this is a very architecturally accurate implementation of a channel based I/O; correct? JOHN: Exactly. JOHN MINER: And it's based on ASICs we've been developing. These happen to be prototype ASICs. JOHN: Correct. JOHN MINER: What we've got is three different types of storage I/O connected to a single server. JOHN: Correct. JOHN MINER: You don't see the wires back there but three wires are connected; is that right? JOHN: Exactly. So we're running three different channel host adapters inside of the host and each provides a link to the storage subsystem that it supports. JOHN MINER: Now for this particular implementation, we're starting at out at one and a quarter gigabit per second, and the production implementation will be for a single link, two and a half gigabit per second; correct? JOHN: Exactly. JOHN MINER: Give us an example of how it's working here. JOHN: Let me point out one other thing. In the middle we have a Finisar analyzer, and it will show us traffic generated when I do a file copy. And the demo is I'm going to copy some video files over to the subsystems, and you'll see the subsystems linking come alive and then I'll run them. So you'll see traffic go one way on the top box as I'm copying files from the host and you'll see it go the other way as I run the files themselves. And after this we'll demonstrate Crossroads Communications technology, their prototypes of their products. The other key thing to point out here, John, is we have NT file transparency. What you see here, these open windows here are actually the storage subsystems that are running here. And I'm just going to be able to grab the file and copy it over to each one of them. And so as I do this, you're seeing the drives come alive. JOHN MINER: So you can see the drive lights bringing there and what are we looking at on the analyzer? JOHN: It's showing us the traffic being generated on the links in the direction to the drives. JOHN MINER: So the top link is the traffic going from the server to the drive; correct? JOHN: Right. And as soon as these file companies get done, I'll be able to click on them and you'll see the traffic go the other way. There's the second one. There's the third one. So basically what you're seeing is native NGIO cells being transmitted or, excuse me, channel I/O cells being transmitted from the host to these analyzers. JOHN MINER: So you're seeing traffic going in both directions and you've got an advertisement running for channel I/O here. JOHN: Exactly. JOHN MINER: That's pretty impressive. So what we have here is a prototyping platform from which developers can begin the development work to develop channel I/O based systems. And, in fact, what you see here is the work of Intel and the industry to make sure we have channel I/O target systems such as the storage systems that LSI has developed. Is this non FC SAN? JOHN: Exactly. JOHN MINER: Anything else we should cover? JOHN: Only other thing is this is truly remote I/O. These storage subsystems could be placed anywhere within a data center and be shared amongst multiple hosts. JOHN MINER: So the data, multiple servers could be sharing those three different storage arrays. JOHN: Exactly. Before I leave this demo, I want to show one other thing, the Finisar analyzer. So we've seen the traffic generated. Actually, behind it you can actually see the contents of the cells as they're being transmitted. So it's a true functioning development tool for vendors in the industry. JOHN MINER: Very good. Lots of progress. Good starting point for system I/O. Why don't you show us what we have here. JOHN: All right. This is a storage router from Crossroad Communications, and it provides some higher level of function element, layer three and four switching capabilities for applications like host free, backup, and things like that. What we're going to see here is an iometer workload being run off of the host, and you have NGIO coming into the storage router and fiber channel coming out and driving this fiber channel system below. JOHN MINER: So we're using iometer; is that right? JOHN: We're using iometer. And the point here is it's not performance centric. It's about functionality. Basically we validated the architecture, the architectural concept that we had, to bring a channel-based I/O to the market prior to locking down all the things in the designs, et cetera. JOHN MINER: Now, this is a key ingredient to enable system area networks and storage area networks to be interconnected effectively; correct? JOHN: Exactly. JOHN MINER: In a similar type of routing device that allowed direct attachment to a high-speed network or a high-speed backbone in the system area network as well. JOHN: Exactly. Different flavors of processors for applications. JOHN MINER: Right. Yeah, very good. JOHN: So you're seeing real traffic being generated through iometer, and a lot of people really rely on iometer as a workload generator or as a measurement tool. So we're really excited that we have real prototypes of real industry products from vendors that helped us develop the architecture. And we also have the development vehicles, the prototyping vehicles to get the industry started. JOHN MINER: Fantastic. So we have a great starting point for system I/O. Thanks a lot, John. (Applause.) JOHN MINER: Now what I'd like to do is very quickly hit the benefits of system I/O, the specification target that we have for the end of this year. And then we're going to begin to wrap up. First of all, this channel based I/O allows connectivity to build modular systems. We basically can break through the physical limitations of PCI and have out of the box I/O, which is what we've demonstrated over here, as well as the support for a hot swap at the system level and at the node level. So systems and networks can be serviced without taking the application down. So you stop and think about the design for availability at the network level, this is one of the key ingredients to enable that. Flexible systems configurations are a key attribute of channel based I/O. Off-the-shelf rack systems, chassis. You can effectively think of the rack becoming an I/O back plane, taking advantage of channel based I/O in which you plug storage units, compute units, or whatever it is, including switching technology and routing technology, to build out your network infrastructure. High availability, you have multiple fault domains versus a single point of failure that you have in shared bus I/O architectures, providing a much more resilient system and a much more easy to use and easier to administer system. And it delivers outstanding performance. System I/O targets, link speed is two and a half gigabits per second and you'll be able to go from a single link up to an aggregation of 12 links giving you 30 gigabytes per second in the performance of the product. In addition to that it is architected such that as wire speeds increase, as each ling speed increases, the overall system I/O will increase as well. So when ten gigabit link technology is available you can multiply all these numbers by four. I can't encourage and emphasize enough for everybody to get rapidly involved and have your product lines in place to take advantage of this. I want to wrap up with this picture. System I/O is more than a specification. We've been talking about this for a long time, but effectively, it is the key enabling technology behind the vision of the platforms that are being developed by customers like David Yeger. It is a technology that is going to enable these Web farms, server farms, whether it's an application server farm or an HTML server farm or a back-end database server farm to be built out and delivered to your customers, a 365 days a year, 24-hour by 7 days a week, nonstop, high available environment, at very affordable prices taking advantage of these standard high volume building blocks that this industry is available of building. So with that, the call to action is very straightforward. Continue to invest and design in your systems for high availability at the board level, the system level and at the level that interfaces the system into the network. Design your systems for performance and scalability. Remember that the Xeon socket is the key socket to deliver performance and headroom to your customers and the kind of response time that their Internet users are expecting. Make sure your Merced programs are on track, and engage in the system I/O industry effort for '01 products. With that I'd like to wrap up and turn the stage over to Mark Christensen. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thanks in advance.......

To: Pigboy who wrote (24166)	9/22/1999 11:45:00 AM
From: Kerry Lee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29386

MTI Launches New Vivant Family of End-to-End Enterprise Storage Network Solutions Product Line Designed to Bring 'DataServices' to the Enterprise ANAHEIM, Calif., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on its leadership in providing high-performance enterprise-class storage solutions, MTI Technology Corp. (Nasdaq: MTIC) has announced the first in a series of high-availability, end-to-end enterprise storage network solutions. The Vivant family is designed to support the demanding data storage requirements of large corporate enterprises into the next millennium. Vivant is the hardware foundation of the recently announced MTI DataServices strategy. The product line provides strategically integrated storage hardware and software that have been certified and tested to minimize challenges often encountered in today's complex enterprise storage environments. MTI's DataServices combines Storage Area Network (SAN) and Network-Attached Storage (NAS) technologies coupled with consulting services and management software in a single solution, offering comprehensive, cross-platform compatibility with certified interoperability. "IT customers implementing applications that require scalable, enterprise-class storage would do well to work with MTI," said Michael L. Peterson, president of Strategic Research Corp. in Santa Barbara, Calif. "Vivant and its broad range of storage services, coupled with MTI's professional services, are a solid combination." The Fibre Channel-based network storage systems in the Vivant family feature MTI's fault-tolerant, scalable technology that enables users to expand storage to multiple terabytes of data. The systems offer concurrent host support for a variety of applications that require high bandwidth and maximum transfer rates such as large enterprise data warehousing, data mining and online transaction processing (OLTP) environments. Seven essential storage management functions are offered as part of MTI DataServices. Each feature is designed to provide the necessary functionality for enterprise storage networks including certified and tested combinations of hardware and software coupled with a wide array of service and support options. The seven integrated services include block servers (storing data in native OS formats for SAN environments), file servers (storing data at a logical file level for access by NFS and CIFS clients in a NAS environment), Fiber Channel connectivity components, data replication, backup protection, centralized storage management, and 24x7 support services. "By combining the Vivant family of storage systems -- which unites the essential elements of both SAN and NAS into a fully tested, high-availability, enterprise storage solution -- with MTI DataServices, we have taken the design of enterprise network solutions to a new level," said Kevin J. Liebl, vice president of marketing at MTI. "MTI's investment in R&D and patented technology along with experience in installing over 800 Fibre Channel-based solutions are combined to offer high-performance, end-to-end network storage solutions. The integration of critical SAN connectivity features such as hubs and switches eliminates a customer's worry of mixing and matching SAN components and delivers fully functioning SAN environments." To ensure high levels of data integrity and availability, the Vivant series can be configured with MTI's DataShield volume mapping. DataShield partitions large storage arrays into smaller logical units that may be assigned to separate servers on a Fibre Channel-based SAN. This enables storage to be consolidated into a single, easy-to-manage logical storage space that can be assigned to servers on an as-needed basis. In addition, the technology offers a more secure computing environment by ensuring that storage dedicated to one host is not reported to any remaining hosts, preventing data corruption and unauthorized data access. Data replication for the Vivant network storage server is managed by MTI's powerful DataSentry technology. DataSentry performs mission-critical tasks in the enterprise, including local and remote mirroring for Y2K compliance testing, offline decision support, offline data backup protection, disaster recovery and quality-assurance testing. DataSentry protects and manages corporate data in 24x7 and distributed computing environments providing Continuous Access to Online Information(SM). The technology can assure the highest levels of data availability while dramatically reducing downtime associated with system outages at corporate data center facilities. DataSentry is designed to keep mission-critical applications up and running by providing continuous data access despite a complete failure in a primary server or data storage system. The initial Vivant family offering consists of three base models described below. All models include hot-swappable disk drives and redundant, hot-swappable, high-performance RAID controllers, power supplies and fans. Vivant V10 The entry-level product in the Vivant family, the V10 is designed for smaller enterprise storage requirements. The 40-inch cabinet version supports up to 1.2TB and the larger 70-inch cabinet can be configured with up to 3TB of storage. Using hub-based Fibre Channel connection services, storage can be allocated between up to four heterogeneous host systems in a SAN environment when used with MTI's DataShield volume mapping feature. Vivant V20 The mid-range Vivant V20 is intended for larger enterprise storage needs. Based on redundant switched Fibre Channel connections and using MTI's DataShield option, up to 3TB of storage in a single 70-inch cabinet can be divided among up to 10 heterogeneous host systems with redundant connections for higher availability. Vivant V30 Vivant V30 is aimed at high-end, high-availability data storage requirements in large enterprises. The V30 can be configured with dual RAID Elements for companies running performance-hungry applications. Storage capacity in its multiple cabinet configurations can span up to 9.6TB allocated between up to 35 different host systems using redundant Fibre Channel switched connections. The Vivant family will support a wide array of open systems operating environments including Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, IBM AIX, Linux, Microsoft Windows NT, Novell NetWare, SGI IRIX and Sun Solaris. Entry-level pricing starts at $173,000 for a 218GB unit and ranges to just over $1.5 million for a fully configured 9.6TB system. Vivant is now available for shipment 30 days after receipt of order. About MTI MTI's mission is to provide Continuous Access to Online Information through fault-tolerant, cross-platform data storage servers for the enterprise. MTI develops, manufactures, sells and services data server solutions for Global 2000 companies on a worldwide basis. Headquartered in Anaheim, Calif., the company offers services and support from more than 40 offices in the U.S. and Europe and complies with ISO 9001 quality system standards. MTI may be reached by phone: 800-999-9MTI or 714-970-0300, fax: 714-693-2256 or e-mail: info@mti.com. Information can also be accessed via MTI Online, the company's World Wide Web server on the Internet at: www.mti.com. This press release includes forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the company's product development plans, which are subject to change. The actual results may differ materially from those described in any forward-looking statement. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ are set forth in the company's periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-K for the year ended April 3, 1999. MTI is a registered trademark, Vivant, DataSentry, DataShield and MTI DataServices are trademarks, and Continuous Access to Online Information is a service mark of MTI Technology Corp. All other company, brand or product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. SOURCE: MTI Technology Corp. CONTACT: Media Relations: Kevin J. Liebl, Vice President, Marketing, 714-693-2740, kliebl@mti.com, or Investor Relations: Frank Yoshino, Treasurer, 714-693-2775, fyoshino@mti.com, both of MTI Technology Corp.; or Kari Garcia of Comm Strategies, 949-753-9292, kgarcia@commstrategies.com, for MTI Technology Corp.