SBE Rolls out TCP/IP Offload Engine Serving iSCSI and CPU-Bound or Bandwidth Limited Applications; Performance Results Demonstrate over 70% Reduction in CPU Utilization.

SAN RAMON, Calif. -- SBE, Inc. (Nasdaq:SBEI), a leading provider of high performance OEM communications solutions, today announced the launch of its ASIC-based toePCI-2Gx, a dual port Gigabit Ethernet TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE) with optional copper or fiber GBICs, to reduce the amount of host CPU cycles required for TCP/IP processing and maximize Ethernet throughput.

SBE's toePCI-2Gx board is designed to address the bottleneck that has developed in high speed networks resulting from the burden of TCP/IP processing on the CPU. Today's modern networks incorporate packet communications for a wide variety of applications linking WAN (Wide Area Network), LAN (Local Area Network), and SAN (Storage Area Network). TCP/IP is the common thread throughout and the de-facto packet standard that was developed for the Internet. A computer's host CPU typically terminates the TCP packet, but as Ethernet rates continue to increase, the CPU is pushed beyond its operating capability.

To further illustrate, tests have shown that a 1GHz CPU is completely consumed by TCP/IP processing while supporting a single Gigabit Ethernet full duplex connection, running at full bandwidth. As a result, little to no available bandwidth remains for the critical application work. Adding more ports only further aggravates the problem. "As network connections scale to 1GbE today and eventually 10GbE, it becomes impractical and unproductive to saturate the CPU with this excessive level of TCP/IP protocol processing," stated Carl Munio, vice president of engineering at SBE. "The simplest and most cost-effective method for addressing this growing bottleneck problem is to add a TOE board into your existing server to fully offload the TCP/IP processing from the CPU and free up cycles for application processing," continued Munio.

Ideal for any CPU-bound or bandwidth limited system, SBE's TOE is designed to improve network system performance for demanding market applications, including Server-to-Server communications, Content Delivery, and Next Generation IP Storage, such as iSCSI.

"As an OEM supplier of iSCSI protocol solutions, we had been in search of a TOE hardware partner who offers an advanced, dual port TOE card that could be coupled with our software to create a powerful iSCSI solution for our customers. We experimented with multiple TCP/IP accelerator cards in the industry, and were rather disappointed with their performance, until we came upon SBE's TOE," remarked Andre Hedrick, founder and chief technology officer at PyX Technologies. "Plugging SBE's TOE board into our IP SAN test environment produces results that far exceed those of the competitive TOE solutions which we previously tested. SBE's TOE reduces the host CPU load by over 70%, thus providing a high performance platform for IP storage. Unlike the competitive, single-port TOE cards available in the market today, SBE's two port TOE board allows customers to take full advantage of the multi-pathing and full redundancy benefits provided by PyX's iSCSI protocol," concluded Hedrick.

Primarily targeted to embedded and enterprise-level OEMs, SBE's TOE/iSCSI solutions also serve as a good fit for storage integration companies, such as Peak IP Solutions. "Founded as a provider of network engineering services, Peak IP Solutions is now expanding its business into the IP storage system integration arena," commented Doug Renner, network engineer at Peak IP Solutions. "In doing so, we have been in the process of identifying vendors with high-performance, flexible, and highly reliable solutions to collaborate with for the development of our IP storage systems. We are pleased to have the opportunity to integrate SBE's feature-rich TOE board in our system solutions, and subsequently deliver those unique features and benefits to our customers."

Over the past few months, SBE has been conducting a beta rollout of its TOE and iSCSI solutions in a wide range of applications, including super computing, multimedia content delivery, and IP storage. "Our goal has been to build awareness for the distinct benefits of this technology by sampling our solutions to prospective customers and partners, and other industry leaders. We have installed our TOE and iSCSI products in many beta sites, and test results indicate that our solutions meet and, in many cases, exceed performance expectations," said Dan Grey, senior vice president of sales and marketing at SBE.

"To effectively serve the networking and system integration needs of our customers, Variel is continuously hunting for intelligence on emerging, innovative products and technologies to expand our knowledge base and make educated recommendations to our clients," commented Ali Asvadi, president of Variel Technology. "We recently evaluated SBE's iSCSI solution and were impressed with the unique advantages that it offered, including the dual port feature on the TOE card enabling full support for ERL2."

Availability and Pricing

The toePCI-2Gx solution is currently available for shipment. This board is also available for iSCSI applications as a bundled pack, iscsiPCI-2Gx with PyX Technologies' iSCSI protocol. Pricing varies based on configuration requirements and OEM quantities. Please contact the SBE sales team at 925-355-2000 for pricing details.

About PyX Technologies

PyX Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Concord, California, licenses complete iSCSI software solutions to OEMs, developers and integrators. For more information, please visit www.pyxtechnologies.com.

About Peak IP Solutions

Peak IP Solutions specializes in providing businesses with well-integrated, cost-effective Internet Protocol (IP) and Ethernet-based communications and storage products/services designed to streamline workflow and maximize productivity. For more information, please visit www.peakipsolutions.com.

About Variel Technology

Variel Technology develops and markets innovative networked storage solutions that help accelerate the adoption of IP storage in the small to medium-size enterprises. For more information, please visit www.variel.com.

About SBE

SBE architects and provides network communications solutions for an extensive range of applied computing applications. SBE offers a robust portfolio of standards-based WAN, LAN, storage network interface cards (NICs) as well as communications controllers designed to enable optimal performance and rapid deployment across a full spectrum of next generation networking systems. Based in San Ramon, California, SBE is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq:SBEI) with products sold worldwide through direct sales, OEMs and system integration partners. For additional information, please visit www.sbei.com.

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements about new product features, market opportunity for new products, and the demand for services that may be offered by SBE's customers. Such statements are only predictions and the company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to, risks related to rapidly changing product requirements, the introduction of new products, market acceptance of the Company's products, and reliance on strategic partners. These factors and others are more fully discussed in the documents SBE files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including SBE's Annual Report on Form 10-K.

SBE and the SBE logo are registered trademarks of SBE, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.