Emulex Announces High Performance Full Duplex Fibre Channel PCI Host
Bus Adapter
COSTA MESA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 1999--
Software Compatibility With Existing Products Provides Seamless Upgrade, Preserving Customer Investments
Emulex Corp. (Nasdaq:EMLX), a leader in fibre channel technology and products, Friday announced the
availability of the industry's highest performance fibre channel host adapter, the LightPulse(TM) LP8000.
Running full duplex, the LP8000 has been measured at 150MB/s, and is capable of sustaining throughput of
200MB/s with a single fibre channel connection. The LP8000, the latest in a family of software compatible
high-performance host adapters, delivers more than 30,000 I/Os per second from a single adapter in the latest
Xeon-based server running Windows NT. The LP8000 also features sophisticated hardware that provides
superior performance in Storage Area Networks (SANs), delivering low latency and high throughput in switched,
loop and clustered environments.
"The LP8000 sets new benchmarks for performance and features," stated Mike Smith, senior director of fibre
channel marketing for Emulex. "With this announcement, Emulex is positioned to extend its leadership position
in fibre channel, and positions us for growth in the NT and UNIX enterprise computing environments," he added.
"The Fibre Channel Market showed strong growth in the fourth quarter of 1998," said Ed Frymoyer, president of
emf associates. "Emulex has been instrumental in the development and deployment of Fibre Channel products
for the market. They are considered a market leader in high performance PCI host bus adapters and the
introduction of the LP8000 continues this legacy," he added.
The LP8000 achieves its performance through the use of its ASIC technology and firmware, a 233 MIPS
on-board processor, and the use of advanced features such as 64-bit PCI and full-duplex fibre channel
transfers. This technology enables the LP8000 to deliver leading performance with minimal host CPU utilization.
Designed to support mission critical enterprise applications, the LP8000 provides a unique combination of
features, including full fabric support using F_Port and FL_Port connections, high data integrity, up to 100km
cabling and support for all fibre channel topologies and classes 2 and 3. The LP8000 features a GBIC physical
interface, providing customers with flexibility to support a full range of cabling options, including copper,
multi-mode fiber or single-mode fiber. The LP8000 is also available with embedded copper and embedded
optical physical interface options.
Emulex provides the richest fibre channel software support available in the industry. The LP8000 maintains
compatibility with customer-specific drivers written to Emulex's "Service Level Interface" (SLI) API specification,
and is supported by drivers for a wide range of operating systems, including Windows NT, Solaris, AIX,
UnixWare, and NetWare. The LP8000 provides support for storage protocol (SCSI), network protocol (IP), as well
as multi-protocol (SCSI & IP) operation, enabling advanced storage area network (SAN), clustering and network
applications.
"High performance enterprise Fibre Channel applications demand 64 bit PCI bus support and must anticipate
full-duplex data traffic. The SAN, clustering and network environments also need comprehensive OS, Fibre
Channel port and top level protocol support," said Robert Gray, research manager, International Data Corp.
"Emulex is a Fibre Channel adapter market leader with an impressive list of OEM customers. The LP8000
clearly strengthens the company's position," he added.
The LP8000, available now, joins Emulex's broad family of fibre channel product offerings addressing the needs
of both mission critical enterprise applications and direct connect storage links. Emulex is the leading supplier
of full duplex PCI gigabit fibre channel adapters with a large installed base of LP7000/E and LP6000/E
customers, the predecessors to the new LP8000 family. Two additional offerings include the LP3000 which is
the industry's leading price performance fibre channel adapter for direct attach storage applications and the
innovative LH5000 digital re-timing hub which include a full suite of Web and SNMP management capabilities.
About Emulex
Emulex Corp. is a leading designer of high-performance network connectivity products including fibre channel,
printer server and network access products. The company's hardware and software-based networking solutions
improve communication in computer networks and enhance data flow between computers and peripherals.
Fibre channel is a high-performance ANSI standard interface that is supported by the 120+ worldwide member
Fibre Channel Association which includes Sun, Hewlett-Packard and Seagate. As a leading developer and
supplier of fibre channel technology, Emulex's fibre channel devices support all implementations of the fibre
channel standard, including arbitrated loop, switched fabric and point-to-point topologies.
The company markets to OEMs and end users through its own worldwide selling organization, as well as
two-tier distribution partners. Corporate headquarters are located in Costa Mesa. News releases and other
information about Emulex Corp. are available via Emulex's World Wide Web address at emulex.com.
.....I/O by Emulex(TM) |
