Future I/O Alliance Debuts Release of New Input/Output Server Specification.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 1999--

Compaq, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, Adaptec, 3Com, and new

addition Cisco Systems are cooperating to develop an

industry-wide, open Future I/O specification that will preserve

innovation for high performing servers.

News Highlights:

1. The Future I/O standard specification will be available to
participants on the Future I/O Web site May 25.

2. Cisco Systems joins Future I/O Developers Forum to bring the total
number of promoters to six.  Cisco represents more than 80 percent of
the network router market.

3. Future I/O formally incorporates into a Special Interest Group
(SIG).

4. Future I/O Alliance holds a Developers Conference in Santa Clara on
May 25 to review the new input/output specification.

The Future I/O Alliance, an industry consortium for creating a new input/output (I/O) standard for server-to-server and server-I/O communications, Monday announced that the first draft release of the new Future I/O standard will be available on May 25, 1999 at the Future I/O Developers Conference.

The new specification optimizes information flow and reliability between mission critical servers and their communications, networking, storage and processing subsystems, and builds on the decades of collective knowledge and experience possessed by the high-performance enterprise computing companies involved in the alliance. Additionally, it will allow for continued innovation within the standard, maintaining a healthy level of competition in the industry and ensuring that current and evolving customer needs are satisfied.

As a part of an open industry forum to be held on May 25 in Santa Clara, the major portion of the Future I/O specification, which has been reviewed by promoting partners Compaq, HP, IBM, 3Com, Adaptec, and Cisco Systems, will be made available to the more than 70 participating companies for review and comment.

The Future I/O Alliance is creating a new input/output (I/O) standard for the next generation of high-performance systems in order to maximize data transfer between high-performance servers and peripheral subsystems. It aims to capitalize on proven enterprise technologies to improve reliability, availability, scalability, manageability and security in conjunction with existing PCI technologies and to map technology enhancements in anticipation of future computing applications. Currently, Future I/O has more than 220 participants -- representing more than 70 companies across five continents participating in and supporting the development of this new architecture.

Future I/O Incorporates into a Special Interest Group (SIG)

In response to the dramatic interest in the input/output specification, the Future I/O Alliance has formally incorporated into a Special Interest Group (SIG). A dedicated management company has been retained to promote increased awareness and knowledge of the Future I/O specification throughout the industry and among alliance partners.

Future I/O Specification Offers Superior Technology and Benefits

At its unveiling, the Future I/O architecture is designed to deliver new levels of reliability, scalability, flexibility, manageability and security for data flow in servers -- vital factors in developing a complete and robust Internet connected environment.

Future I/O builds on years of enterprise computing experience, proven and emerging industry standards such as CIM, IPsec and IPv6 which represents some of the latest technology advances to deliver never-seen-before levels of performance and availability at a cost comparable to today's high-performance PCI I/O subsystems. To ensure the best possible standard, the Future I/O development team focused on several areas:

1. Ensure a complete value chain is delivered at introduction,

including platforms, operating system support, middleware, cards,

drivers and applications.

2. Ensure there is a clear migration path and roadmap of growth

for the next decade. (Retain the value of the customers'

investment.)

3. Ensure that existing I/O standards such as PCI remain

supported for legacy connectivity for years to come.

4. Support PCI-X where appropriate to provide fully compatible,

low cost extensions to PCI's life to smoothly overlap the

introduction of Future I/O.

Future I/O provides for a direct, high performance and expandable interface between main memory, and the controller devices for I/O services such as network communications, storage and processing subsystems.

Future I/O is designed to complement existing peripheral interconnect approaches such as SCSI, Fiber-Channel and Ethernet. The new specification will co-exist with PCI in the foreseeable future in managing a smooth transition to FIO-equipped servers.

Technology that Solves Real Customer Problems

Server I/O performance is becoming crucial to applications today because of the use of the Internet, intranets and extranets. Key applications deployed in most Information Technology (IT) enterprises are "I/O-centric," pushing I/O bus performance to its limits in handling key I/O tasks to deliver data to and from the server's main CPU. Future I/O is architected to provide a smooth transition on top of PCI and PCI-X systems, to allow for improvements in computing, reliability and scalability for future requirements.

Future I/O's IP-like protocol allows faster connections to the Internet. Not only does this speed up Internet transactions, it also enables greater speeds for mission-critical enterprise applications including e-commerce, global distributed storage, remote mirroring and disaster recovery.

Another strong benefit of Future I/O is reduced Total Cost of Ownership from focusing network reliability, scalability and manageability. Future I/O addresses reliability by creating multiple redundant paths. Scalability is handled by making it very easy to either add more processors, switches, and I/O or peripheral devices to the "network." FIO is so scalable that in the current specification under review can theoretically connect the whole Internet to a single FIO network per Ipv6. Fault isolation and recovery add to manageability.

New Future I/O Promoter

Cisco Systems has joined Future I/O Developers Forum to bring the total number of promoters to six. The growth of the Alliance will strengthen the ability to increase awareness of the Future I/O server architecture benefits and uses for server-to-server and server-I/O communications.

Future I/O promoting partners are responsible for more than 62 percent of the existing x86 server market with an estimated value of more than $50 billion and over half of the RISC server market; IBM, Compaq and HP have decades of enterprise computing experience, have daily interaction with many enterprise customers who have business critical computing requirements, and are market leaders in the NT, UNIX, and mainframe server markets.

In addition, 3Com and Cisco Systems are market leaders in providing networking infrastructure from the desktop client to the Internet backbone that includes the corporate data center. Cisco is the market leader in routing and LAN switching.

In addition to the six promoters, Future I/O also has more than 70 participant companies who have contributed intellectual property and input to the specification. This breadth of industry support includes acknowledged industry leaders and guarantees strong industry support and better products.

These competitors have come together to share I/O knowledge and resources to develop a standard the entire industry can continue to build upon for the next decade.

Future I/O Developers Forum: Competitors Cooperate to Preserve

Innovation

There will be a one-day Future I/O Developers Forum on May 25, 1999, in Santa Clara to share the progress of the Future I/O specification. The theme of the Forum is "Competitors Cooperate to Preserve Innovation," to emphasize the fact that companies who normally compete fiercely in the market place are joined in the common goal of creating a new server I/O standard for the benefit of all.

The final Future I/O specification will be released later this year and the forum will provide developers an opportunity to explore a wealth of technical information. Due to the popularity of the previous Future I/O Forum, attendance is limited to five employees per participating company. Participating companies can register online at the Future I/O Web site: http://www.futureio.org.

Future I/O Alliance Companies:

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corp. 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 communications 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 -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services for business and home -- is focused on capitalizing on the opportunities of the Internet and the proliferation of electronic services.

HP had computer-related revenues of $39.5 billion in its 1998 fiscal year. HP plans to launch a new company consisting of its industry-leading test-and-measurement, semiconductor products, chemical-analysis and medical businesses. These businesses represented $7.6 billion of HP's total revenue in fiscal 1998. With leading positions in multiple market segments, this technology-based company will focus on opportunities such as communications and life sciences.

HP has 123,000 employees worldwide and had total revenue of $47.1 billion in the 1998 fiscal year. Information about HP, its products and the company's Year 2000 program can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

IBM is the world's largest information technology company with 1998 revenues of $81.7 billion. IBM Netfinity products provide customers using industry-standard technologies with the industry's most reliable foundation for their networked businesses by delivering outstanding power, scalability, control and service.

The IBM Netfinity family of products enables small, medium and large companies to manage their networked business systems -- from file and print capabilities to the most advanced applications -- virtually anytime, anywhere. Software from industry-leading vendors such as Lotus, Novell, Microsoft, SCO, SAP, Oracle and Baan are tested on IBM Netfinity systems so that customers are empowered to achieve their highest degree of productivity. 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 with headquarters in Milpitas, Calif., Adaptec (Nasdaq:ADPT) employs people worldwide in design, manufacturing, sales, service and distribution.

With more than 200 million customers worldwide, 3Com Corp. connects more people to information in more ways than any other networking company. 3Com delivers innovative information access products and network system solutions to large, medium and small enterprises; carriers and network service providers; PC OEMs; and consumers. 3Com -- More connected(TM). For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at www.3com.com or the press site at http://www.3com.com/pressbox.

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco products include routers, LAN and ATM switches, dial-up access servers and network management software. These products, integrated by Cisco IOS software, link geographically dispersed LANs, WANs and IBM networks. Cisco Systems news and product/service information are available on the World Wide Web site at http://cisco.com. Cisco Systems has headquarters in San Jose, Calif.