Compaq, HP, IBM and Adaptec Form Alliance to Define I/O Standard; Future I/O Forum Set for February 12th, 1999.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 1999--Four of the world's leading technology companies today announced the formation of an open industry alliance to set the direction of Future I/O technology development and implementation.

The Future I/O alliance is creating a new input/output (I/O) standard to maximize data transfer between high-performance servers and peripheral subsystems for the next generation of high-performance systems. The Future I/O standard builds on the decades of collective knowledge and experience possessed by the high-performance computing companies involved in the alliance. In addition, the combined server marketshare of Compaq, Hewlett Packard and IBM will be a significant factor in driving the openness and broad industry support for the Future I/O standard.

Balancing I/O performance is crucial to improving overall system performance and scalability. Future I/O technology has a number of key advantages over existing bus designs and alternative solutions. The areas of improvement include:

-- A specification allowing for continued innovation with the standard to ensure that evolving customer needs are satisfied

-- Easier and more regular performance enhancements

-- Better fault tolerance and fault isolation, leading to increases in overall system reliability, availability and serviceability 

-- More scalable and balanced systems

-- More cost effective and manageable I/O lowering overall system cost

Future I/O employs "point-to-point" links that allow devices to operate at their optimum performance and reliability levels. Unlike existing bus technology that is difficult to upgrade because all connected devices have to move in lock step, point-to-point connections allow performance improvements to be painlessly deployed within a defined development cycle--more rapidly than the lengthy 7 to 10 year cycle with existing bus technology.

Individual systems utilizing PCI, PCI-X and Future I/O devices are expected to co-exist in the market for many years after the first deployment of Future I/O systems in 2002. "There is a compelling need to build on existing PCI and PCI-X systems and develop a new I/O specification that can deliver scalable performance improvements, while protecting the IT investments of customers," said Karl Walker vice president of technology development at Compaq Computer Corporation. "By bringing the market-leading server manufacturers together in a unified effort, we have developed an open, best of breed technology providing customers with a clear path for the future. We designed the technology to be deployable across our entire spectrum of business solutions from the Desktop to the Enterprise at a cost and manageability level better than existing PCI solutions. The customer will be the ultimate benefactor of this initiative."

"Our enterprise customers are running a variety of IT systems and have substantial time, money and resources invested in their technology," said Randy Groves, vice president of development for IBM's Netfinity line of servers. "That's why the top server vendors have joined together to craft the Future I/O standard -- to protect our customers' investments and deliver the right technology when they need it. Computing today is all about the customer and end-users, not machines or engineering specs and we understand that better than anybody."

"System vendors have a very close relationship with their Enterprise customers. We see these customers, on many different levels, on a daily basis. We are very aware of their needs involving system performance, availability, reliability and scalability, and their concerns involving investment protection," said Martin Whittaker, research and development manager for enterprise NetServers at Hewlett Packard. "Together the companies of the Future I/O Initiative wanted to establish an open industry initiative that recognizes the input from multiple vendors with reasonable and non-discriminatory (RND) licensing terms that are very similar to those in many other standards. The customer needs a standard that allows innovation within a specification clear and complete enough to ensure interoperability."

"It is a profound testimonial to the growing maturity of this industry that market leaders can come together to cooperate on such an important and far reaching initiative. We are seeing a strong collaborative effort with each of the companies involved contributing their best technology and welcome the long-term benefits it affords our customers, " said Robert Selinger, vice president and chief technologist for Adaptec.

The Future I/O Initiative builds on the success of the recently announced PCI-X specification that was jointly developed by Compaq, HP, and IBM. The Initiative will follow an open industry development and governance model similar to that of the PCI Special Interest Group (SIG) which is the governing body responsible for the open development process that has successfully managed the PCI standard over its lifetime.

"3Com, the leader in rolling out Gigabit Ethernet from the network core to the client, is working with the Future I/O group to ensure that the next generation of servers have high-performance, highly-reliable channel architecture," said Tom Werner, vice president and general manager of 3Com's LAN connectivity division. "Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and IBM are experts in servers and have great market experience. 3Com is delighted to join with these companies and bring to bear our unmatched experience and expertise in networking."

"LSI Logic is very excited about participating with other leaders of the enterprise server market to develop the next generation systems interconnect, " said Harry Mason, Strategic Alliance Director at LSI Logic. "It's clear that switched-based fabrics will enable new levels of increased reliability, scalability, and manageability to provide compelling customer benefit to the enterprise systems market. LSI looks forward to applying its expertise in high performance storage solutions, and leading edge System-on-a-Chip(R) custom components, in the enablement of Future I/O technology."

There will be a conference to announce more details about Future I/O on February 12th. Companies interested in joining in the Future I/O Initiative and registering to attend the February conference are encouraged to visit the Future I/O Initiative website at www.futureio.org

About the Future I/O Initiative companies:

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation is a Fortune Global 200 company. Compaq is the second largest computer company in the world and the largest global supplier of personal computers. Compaq develops and markets hardware, software, solutions, and services, including industry-leading enterprise computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, networking and communication products, commercial desktop and portable products and consumer PCs.

The company is an industry leader in environmentally friendly programs and business practices. Compaq products are sold and supported in more than 100 countries through a network of authorized Compaq marketing partners. Customer support and information about Compaq and its products are available at http://www.compaq.com.

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global provider of computing, Internet and intranet solutions, services, communications products and measurement solutions, all of which are recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 124,600 employees and had revenues of $47.1 billion in its 1998 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

IBM is the world's largest information technology company. More details about IBM products and services can be found at http://www.ibm.com.

Adaptec provides bandwidth management technologies for organizations building the global information infrastructure. Its high performance I/O, connectivity, and network products are incorporated into the systems and products of major computer and peripheral manufacturers. Founded in 1981 and headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., Adaptec (NASDAQ:ADPT) employs people worldwide in design, manufacturing, sales, service and distribution. Adaptec's home page is http://www.adaptec.com.

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