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Strategies & Market Trends : Cents and Sensibility - Kimberly and Friends' Consortium -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 2MAR$ who wrote (61725)	1/13/2000 8:56:00 AM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 108040

JNI Debuts Linux Driver for Fibre Channel HBAs SAN DIEGO, Jan 13, 2000 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Leading Vendor of Host Bus Adapters Releases Driver for Red Hat Linux; Driver Integrated into JNI's PC Server DriverSuite of Products JNI Corporation (Nasdaq:JNIC), one of the leading vendors of Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs), today announced the debut of its software driver for Red Hat(R) Linux(R) running on JNI's Emerald(TM)-based FibreStar(TM) PCI bus HBA cards. The driver, currently in beta, will be available during 1Q 2000 as part of a suite of integrated drivers introduced by JNI called the PC Server DriverSuite(TM). (See accompanying release on the PC Server DriverSuite.) The driver operates under Red Hat Linux 6.0 and 6.1. The Linux driver offers the same enterprise-level feature set as all JNI drivers, including operating in all Fibre Channel topologies, point-to-point, arbitrated loop and switched fabric, the latter two being used for true Storage Area Network (SAN) implementations. The Linux driver also features a common code base with other JNI drivers to assure the same feature sets are implemented across all operating systems. "Linux is the fastest growing operating system in percentage increase, and is being integrated into many of the types of applications we service today," said Tracy Crowe, director of marketing for JNI. "We have been able to take our vast experience in Solaris and enterprise-quality Unix environments and implement that in our Linux driver. As Linux continues to penetrate the SAN and enterprise markets, our driver will assure users the high-availability, mission-critical quality of our current drivers has been carried into our Linux driver." Linux is predicted to be one of the key operating systems used in e-business systems, an important application for SANs in general and Fibre Channel in particular. Red Hat is the most widely implemented version of Linux used in enterprise-level installations. Drivers Drivers are a vital part of Fibre Channel HBAs, allowing them to run in system environments and topologies. Drivers facilitate all functions on a Fibre Channel HBA, including three significant areas: the operating system interface, SAN reliability and the bus interface. JNI develops its own drivers using a common development code base for all supported operating systems/buses, including Windows NT(R)/PCI, Windows 2000(R)/PCI, Solaris(R)/SBus, Solaris/PCI, Novell(R)/PCI and Macintosh(R)/PCI. The result is a single driver for each JNI HBA that supports all Fibre Channel topologies and environments, including support for hubs and switches. Other HBAs may require up to seven different drivers per operating system to match JNI's single driver. The common code base gives JNI the ability to quickly integrate important features and benefits for customers. This is especially important in many Novell environments, which will often be integrated into systems running Windows NT and Macintosh OS. In addition, JNI's common development code base means improvements made to one driver are also implemented to all other operating systems. Finally, the common code base makes it far easier to install the Fibre Channel network, since a single JNI driver works with all possible installations on any given operating system. With this announcement, JNI now offers one of the broadest range of drivers for Fibre Channel HBAs, including those operating under Windows NT, Windows 2000, Solaris OS, Macintosh OS and Novell NetWare OS (also announced today.) Pricing and Availability The Red Hat Linux driver is compatible with most Emerald-based FibreStar PCI-bus HBAs. These include the FCE-3210, FCE-6410, FCE2-6410 and FCE2-6412. It will be available during 1Q 2000 for free via a download from an ftp link on JNI's Web site, www.jni.com, as part of the PC DriverSuite. A beta version will be given to qualified OEMs and development partners. Please check with a JNI representative for receiving a beta driver or confirming board compatibility. To upgrade to JNI FibreStar boards that operate under the Novell driver or PC Server DriverSuite, please contact you local sales representative or contact JNI at 858-535-3121 or at www.jni.com. About JNI JNI Corporation is a leading developer and manufacturer of Fibre Channel hardware and software products that form critical elements of SANs. JNI developed some of the first commercially available Fibre Channel-based products and the company concentrates exclusive