Full-Speed Fibre Channel PCI Bus Announced By Emulex Network Systems; LightPulse PCI Host Adapter Card Brings Gigabit Speeds to LAN and Storage at Half the Cost of Current Solutions.

COSTA MESA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 1995--Emulex Corp. (NASDAQ:EMLX), an industry leader in developing Fibre Channel technology, today announced the LightPulse product family.

The first member, a full-featured Fibre Channel PCI bus adapter card, wull support quarter-speed (266 Mbps), half-speed (531 Mbps), and full-speed (1.062 Gbps) Fibre Channel throughput, and will be compatible with point-to-point, arbitrated loop, and switched fabric topologies.

The suggested list price for the LightPulse PCI adapter is $1,995 per card for full-speed performance. It will be available on a limited basis through fourth quarter 1995, with volume shipments expected in early first quarter 1996.

"The LightPulse PCI Adapter brings affordable high-performance throughput to data-intensive environments such as distributed database clusters and high-volume disk arrays," said Paul Folino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Emulex Corp. "As bandwidth is becoming a commodity in these environments, the capabilities of Fibre Channel -- including low latency and full-gigabit speed -- have emerged as performance requirements. LightPulse allows Information Technology (IT) managers to optimize the network for full-, half- or quarter-speed Fibre Channel at a cost similar to that of other network technologies such as FDDI."

LightPulse is completely compatible with all network standards and storage interfaces -- including TCP/IP, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and SCSI -- and can be configured to work with a variety of copper and fiber media. Additionally, LightPulse incorporates Emulex's custom three-chip "FireFly" controller set to ensure gigabit throughput -- allowing IT managers to implement Fibre Channel and solve I/O performance bottlenecks while maintaining network integrity.

While LightPulse will support all three Fibre Channel topologies, Emulex expects that most users will implement arbitrated loop. In this topology, up to 126 separate network devices, including workstations, servers and disk drives, can be connected without the need for costly network switching equipment.

Features

The LightPulse PCI Adapter is compliant with both the ANSI Fibre Channel and PCI Local Bus standards. Host adapters can be purchased in a number of configurations -- from quarter-speed to full-speed, with 384KB to 1 MB of memory -- and can be used for either networking or storage implementations.

-- Throughput -- enables full-duplex data transfer rates of 266 Mbit/sec, 531 Mbit/sec, and 1.062 Gbit/sec.

-- Memory -- available with 384 Kbytes or 1 Mbyte of on-board memory.

-- Protocol-independence -- supports both network (TCP/IP) and storage (SCSI-FCP) protocols simultaneously.

-- Configuration -- supports all three Fibre Channel topologies: point-to-point arbitrated loop, and switched fabric, as well as Class 1, 2, 3 and intermix frame formats.

-- Media -- compatible with both copper and fiber cabling through the standard gigabit link module (GLM).

-- Environments -- currently optimized for Microsoft Windows NT and IBM AIX, Emulex will add support for additional environments throughout 1996.

Architecture

The LightPulse PCI Adapter is designed using three custom VLSI chips. At the heart of the "FireFly" chipset is a 32-bit RISC processor to maximize system performance.

-- ENDEC+ -- implements the control and low-level encoding and decoding functions of the Fibre Channel protocol in a single Fibre Channel component.

-- Protocol Accelerator -- utilizes a 32-bit integrated ARM RISC processor to accelerate protocol functions, simplify the driver interface, reduce host interrupts and free host processors for other functions.

-- Bus Interface Unit (BIU) -- provides an interface between the host adapter and the PCI local bus.

Partnerships

Emulex has teamed with three critical partners to bring Fibre Channel technology more rapidly to market.

-- National Semiconductor -- signed an agreement to license Emulex Fibre Channel Protocol chipset technology for mass reproduction, the first such deal between a merchant semiconductor manufacturer and an established Fibre Channel technology vendor.

-- Vitesse -- signed an agreement under which Vitesse will OEM Emulex Fibre Channel components and combine them with Vitesse transceivers for resale as a packaged solution.

-- VLSI -- signed an agreement under which VLSI will be a licensed reseller of the Emulex's complete "FireFly" Fibre Channel chipset.

Corporate Background

Emulex is a leading developer of Fibre Channel technology, a high-performance ANSI standard interface and an active participant in the growing 75-member Fibre Channel Association, which includes Sun Microsystems, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Seagate. Fibre Channel is uniquely architected to serve both local area networking and peripheral I/O communications needs and has scalable transmission speeds from 266 Mbps to 1.062 Gbps over distances of up to 10 kilometers.

Emulex, based in Costa Mesa, Calif., is a leading designer and manufacturer of both software- and hardware-based network access products, supplying high-performance communications solutions for managing the flow of time-critical data between computers and peripheral equipment. The company markets to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and end-users through its own worldwide selling organization, as well as two-tier distribution partners.

CONTACT: Miller/Shandwick Technologies

Chris Gunning/Tim Beyers, 310/822-4669

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Emulex Corp.

Scott Ruple, 714/513-8146

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