Cambex FibreQuik Micro Channel Host Bus Adapter Enables SAN Access and Data Sharing.

Business/Technology Editors

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 2001

Server, Storage and Tape Library Integration Provides Operational

Efficiency and Defers RS/6000 Upgrade Costs

Cambex Corporation (OTCBB: CBEX), a leading supplier of high availability hardware and software for Storage Area Network (SAN) environments today announces the successful integration of mixed Micro Channel- and PCI-based servers in a shared disk and tape library network.

Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE: RI), one of America's leading companies in the bar and grill segment of casual dining, headquartered in Maryville, TN is a market leader in growth and profitability with over $1 billion dollars in system-wide revenue. The company, founded in 1972 by entrepreneurial college students, boasts over 500 Company-owned and franchise-operated restaurants, 28,000 team members, and operations throughout the United States and around the world.

The Information Technology department at Ruby Tuesday is responsible for a wide variety of front- and back-office applications, many of which have to share data and be highly available to support the business-critical global operations. Servers, networks, storage and tape libraries are constantly being upgraded and migrated, but during that time production applications still must operate in the most cost-efficient manner possible.

In the face of an economic recession and tighter IT budgets, stretching the useful life of server and storage assets is always desirable. However, support for legacy platforms in a SAN environment is especially difficult, as older SCSI-based disk and tape devices are often incompatible with the speed and extended distances of Fibre Channel-attached servers, switches and storage.

"Many of our data center customers have partnered with us in the past for memory and storage technology that lowers their cost of operations," according to Joseph F. Kruy, CEO of Cambex. "Our FibreQuik(TM) host bus adapters and failover software are a low-cost way to integrate different generation Unix and Microsoft Windows platforms in the most cost-effective and non-disruptive way," said Kruy.

In this case, a number of IBM RS/6000 servers with the Micro Channel (MCA) bus architecture could not participate in the data center SAN due to a lack of a MCA-compatible fibre channel adapter card. According to Doug Young, IT Department support manager, "The older RS/6000 servers run applications that require interoperability with other servers and storage on the SAN, but the lack of fibre channel connectivity would have necessitated an expensive unplanned upgrade to PCI-based machines," Young said. "Fortunately, the Cambex Micro Channel adapters solved our problem," he added.

Working with their local integration supplier, Worldwide Interactive Network in Kingston, TN, they installed the Cambex FibreQuik(R) MC1000 Micro Channel host bus adapter cards, which is the only solution available for MCA-to-fibre connectivity on the RS/6000. Cambex has also developed Dynamic Path Failover(TM) software for high availability storage on AIX and other open systems platforms. The MC1000 cards and AIX software was installed in a planned outage period and the servers were brought on-line with the other platforms in the SAN.

The RS/6000 MCA-based servers will eventually be replaced in one of Ruby Tuesday's planned IT upgrade cycles, but the Cambex FibreQuik adapters helped to meet the company's current storage access requirements and defer substantial server upgrade costs to another time. When that day comes, Cambex can also provide PCI-based 1 GB/s and 2 GB/s FibreQuik adapters and DPF software for the SAN attachments.

Cambex, headquartered in Waltham, MA has been supplying high-performance, high-availability storage and memory solutions for over 30 years for a wide variety of applications. The Company's products today include Fibre Channel infrastructure products and disk array systems for building heterogeneous Storage Area Networks as well as memories for enterprise servers. Cambex products have been installed in over 1000 data centers worldwide. Cambex can be reached at 781-890-6000 or on the World Wide Web at www.cambex.com.

Forward-looking statements are made in this release pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that all forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, the timing of new announcements or product introductions by the Company and its competitors, the hiring and retention of key employees, competitive pricing pressures, dependence on third parties for components and products, general economic conditions in the United States and international markets, and the risk factors detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

FibreQuik and Dynamic Path Failover are trademarks of the Cambex Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.