Catalyst First to Ship x16 PCI Express Exerciser; System for 16-Lane Configuration Now in Use at PCI Express System Motherboard, Server Developers.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 2004

Catalyst Enterprises, Inc. a leading manufacturer of development tools for a broad range of serial and parallel bus technologies, today announced that it is the first tools provider to ship 16-lane PCI Express exerciser systems. The recently introduced SPX-16E PCI Express Exerciser system, with built-in protocol and performance analysis features, has been delivered to major manufacturers developing PCI Express systems. The company also announced it has several additional orders for the SPX-16E system, with shipment to motherboard and server manufacturers scheduled for Q2.

"Motherboard and server developers who have selected PCI Express as the primary interconnect for their products have been waiting anxiously for a system that can test and characterize their products with a full 16-lane configuration," said Nader Saleh, founder and president of Catalyst. "The SPX-16E fulfills this requirement, allowing their products to reach the market faster and with better reliability than those of their competitors not using the SPX-16E."

Unprecedented Capabilities for PCI Express Designs

The newest member of Catalyst's SPX series of development products, the SPX-16E delivers a range of unprecedented capabilities that allow developers to emulate and characterize PCI Express designs. With such capabilities, manufacturers can eliminate system bottlenecks and assure maximum performance in their final products. Additionally, the SPX-16E is the only PCI Express exerciser system to feature free lifetime technical support and software upgrades.

The SPX-16E features the ability to simultaneously transmit and capture PCI Express traffic sent between the exerciser and a target device, allowing the user to display both sides of the exchange. This capability provides developers with a true all-in-one stimulus-and-capture package. The system executes user-defined programs to perform transaction layer, data layer and physical layer transactions on the PCI Express bus. The SPX-16E can inject errors onto the bus to verify error-handling capabilities. In addition to its support of spread-spectrum clocking, the system also provides full device emulation capabilities, including configuration space and local memory to perform real device emulation functions in a system.

Unique features in the SPX-16E include:

-- Support of up to x16 widths

-- Compact, efficient design on a single card that can be plugged

directly into the system

-- Support of command looping (specific number or infinite times)

-- Adjustable bandwidth (maximum theoretical or delayed intervals)

-- Advanced mode, allowing for bit-level manipulation, error

injection and complex-program execution

-- Continuous real-time "finger-on-the-pulse" performance analysis

-- Advanced COM API support

-- Free lifetime software upgrades

-- Free lifetime technical support

The SPX-16E is available now as a highly flexible system that can be tailored to customers' needs. Please contact Catalyst directly at 408-365-3846 for pricing or additional information.

About Catalyst Enterprises

Founded in 1992 in San Jose, Calif., Catalyst Enterprises manufactures data bus analysis and emulation tools for PCI, PCI-X, USB 2.0, PCI Express, SAS, SATA, and other communications protocols. Catalyst's development tools incorporate a reconfigurable hardware core architecture that can be updated in the field, keeping the tool current with the latest standards and updated feature sets. These flexible hardware tools are powered by protocol-specific software applications, which are made available to customers for the lifetime of the product. Catalyst products are used by companies in the telecommunications, semiconductor, software, consumer electronics, defense and other industries. For more information, visit the company Web site at www.getcatalyst.com or phone [phone].