Alacritech Announces OEM Partnership with Cybernetics.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 2002

Alacritech Accelerators Speed Cybernetics' High-capacity

iSAN Tape Storage Subsystems; CPU Utilization Reduced by 75%

and Data Transfer Rates Tripled

Alacritech(R), Inc., the innovator of network accelerator solutions that enable fast and efficient servers and storage systems, today announced an OEM and integration partnership with Cybernetics, a pioneer of data storage technology. Cybernetics has selected the Alacritech 1000x1 Single-port Gigabit Ethernet Server and Storage Accelerator to provide customers of its iSAN(TM) family of tape storage subsystems with outstanding performance in their IP-based storage area networks (SANs). Alacritech accelerators running in conjunction with Cybernetics' iSAN network-attached tape drive and iTape(TM) backup device reduce CPU utilization by 75% and enable the units to transfer data three times faster than with conventional adapters.

"Cybernetics' goal is to provide our customers with high-performance technology that is also easy to use and cost-effective," said Martin Aherron, vice president of engineering, Cybernetics. "Our new iSAN tape drives offer capacity to 320 Gigabytes, and our library configurations range well into the terabytes. By incorporating the Alacritech cards in our iSAN network-attached iSCSI-based backup solutions, we ensure our customers of the fastest possible tape backup from any Windows host on the network. In addition to putting our customer's storage on their Ethernet network, with Alacritech, we are efficiently tripling their data transfer rates."

Alacritech is the pioneer of TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) technology, and it's 1000x1 Single-port Server and Storage Accelerators enable industry-leading performance in data-intensive SAN environments. The accelerator is based on the company's patented SLIC (session-layer interface control) Technology to offload network processing from software to silicon to achieve outstanding performance in servers, workstations and networks. Alacritech's data-path TCP/IP offload eliminates issues of network throughput, compatibility and scalability by enabling data movement to be performed by the ASIC on the adapter, and TCP/IP connection management and error handling to be handled by the host software.

"By deploying Cybernetics' products with Alacritech accelerators, customers can effectively increase the performance of their existing networks to speed critical applications such as tape backups," said Kim Peyser, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Alacritech, Inc. "Together, we're providing our joint customers with scalable, high-performance solutions that ensure continuous data access and guarantee maximum return on their investments in networked storage."

About Alacritech Acceleration Technology

As systems and servers are burdened with increasing amounts of network traffic, they are forced to process data faster and more efficiently. Alacritech's SLIC Technology(R), with its TCP/IP acceleration capability, is designed to enhance Ethernet/IP network performance as well as dramatically reduce network overhead. Alacritech server and storage accelerators use the Internet Protocol Processor (IPP), a custom, programmable ASIC developed to offload TCP/IP processing from the system to reduce CPU utilization, increase data throughput and decrease network latency. Alacritech's 1000x1 Single-port Server and Storage Accelerators are the only Integrated Storage Network Interface Cards (IS-NICs) to provide hardware acceleration for both IP storage and standard Ethernet traffic. All Alacritech products offer industry-standard failover and link aggregation.

About Cybernetics' iSAN Tape Storage Subsystems

Cybernetics' iSAN family is comprised of iSCSI-compatible, high-performance network-attached tape storage subsystems that utilize standard Ethernet switches, routers and cables to maximize each customer's existing technology investment. Cybernetics iSAN solutions feature high-capacity AIT, SDLT, and LTO tape drives in single, dual-drive and library configurations. Tape capacity ranges from 35 Gigabytes to 320 Gigabytes and throughput can reach 64 Megabytes/second depending on the technology. iSAN tape drives support OS/400, HP-UX, IRIX, Linux, Mac OS, Netware, Solaris, Windows NT/2000 and others.

About Cybernetics

Based in Yorktown, Virginia, Cybernetics manufactures, sells, supports, and services a complete family of tape and disk storage solutions. Established in 1978, Cybernetics is recognized in the United States and across the world as a pioneer in data storage technology and has become well-known for its development of innovative features that vastly improve the performance of tape subsystems while ensuring top reliability and interoperability of systems. For more information about Cybernetics' iSAN family of products, please call the company at 757/833-9000, or visit the company's Web site at http://www.cybernetics.com.

About Alacritech, Inc.

Alacritech, Inc. was founded by Larry Boucher, creator of the SCSI interface, to deliver upon his vision of eliminating the server bottleneck. Today, Alacritech is the innovator of network accelerator solutions that enable fast and efficient servers and storage systems. Alacritech's products are based on the company's patented SLIC (session-layer interface control) Technology to optimize the performance of servers, network-attached storage and iSCSI storage devices. SLIC Technology is the first fully compatible and scalable technology to offload network protocol processing, primarily TCP/IP, from software on the host system to silicon on the adapter. Based in San Jose, California, Alacritech is privately held. Alacritech is a member of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance, the iSCSI Consortium and the Storage Networking Association (SNIA) as well as a founding member of the SNIA IP Storage Forum. For more information about Alacritech and its products, please visit the company's Web site at www.alacritech.com.

Note to Editors: Alacritech, the Alacritech logo, SLIC Technology, and the SLIC Technology logo are registered trademarks of Alacritech, Inc. in the United States. Cybernetics, iSAN and iTape are trademarks of Cybernetics. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.