Polaris Announces Half-Height PCI to ESCON Channel Interface Adapter; Using Advanced Logic, Device Brings Channel-Speed Connectivity to Wide Range of UNIX and NT Servers.

BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 1998--Polaris Communications, Inc., a leader in high speed channel connectivity solutions, today announced the immediate availability of a half-size interface board that connects an ESCON channel directly to a PCI bus in a broad range of Windows NT and UNIX servers.

Called the "6950 PCI ESCON Channel Interface," the device can be used to integrate server-based Internet applications with mainframe data as well as to transfer large files with data transfer rates up to 19.2 MB/second. In addition to its reduced size, the new card employs advanced scatter-gather logic.

"By using byte-addressable scatter-gather logic, the 6950 relieves the server CPU of work in assembling packets for the host," commented Peter LaPorte, vice president of marketing at Polaris. "The net effect is overall improvements in efficiency and performance in moving data to and from the server and mainframe."

The new card expands the company's connectivity options for high-speed data transfer between IBM or plug compatible mainframes and open systems.

"We are impressed with the quality and thoroughness of the design and engineering," said Stanley Rosenblum, marketing product manager at Sequent Computer Systems. "We feel the 6950 will provide a useful option for our customers moving large volumes of data between our NUMA platforms and mainframes."

Polaris Communications, Inc., a privately held company headquartered in Beaverton, OR, is the leading supplier of high performance channel interface cards for Windows NT(R) and UNIX(R) based servers. Polaris released its first Bus & Tag interface card in 1989 and was the first to provide an ESCON interface in 1992. Polaris sells its products worldwide through OEM's, business partners and directly. For more information, phone Polaris at 503/643-1533 or 800/353-1533, or visit their website at www.polariscomm.com.

Sequent Computer Systems (Nasdaq:SQNT), the leader in Intel-based solutions for the data center, is committed to the success of its end-user and system integrator customers. Sequent's platform architectures and services are optimized for the scalability, availability, and manageability requirements of corporate and institutional data center environments leveraging industry-standard technologies and best-in-class partnerships. Sequent supports more than 10,000 installations worldwide, including many of the world's largest and most sophisticated OLTP, DSS and RDBMS applications. For further information, phone Sequent at 503/626-6700 or 800/257-9044, or visit their website at www.sequent.com.