TRADE NEWS: Agilent Technologies Introduces Industry's Highest Scalability Fibre Channel SAN Test System for Director Class Switches; SAN Director Tester offers 128 Ports of Concurrent 4 Gb/s I/O.

SAN DIEGO -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today introduced the SAN director tester, the industry's highest scalability Fibre Channel test system for SAN director class switches. The Agilent 1733L SAN director tester also dramatically reduces the cost of testing high port-count systems.

Because director class switches carry the highest loads within and between Storage Area Networks (SAN), it is essential that they are robust under all network conditions and provide a non-blocking full line rate performance.

Existing test methods use large numbers of PC controllers or "walls of PCs" for I/O traffic generation to stress director class switches. It is difficult to coordinate the operations of all of the PCs from a centralized view. In addition, since typical PCs are not designed to run at wire speed due to software and driver limitations, testing under realistic conditions has become more challenging as director switches' port speed has increased to 4 Gb/s.

Agilent's SAN director tester is the industry's first tester capable of 4 Gb/s traffic generation on 128 ports concurrently. By providing a centralized, multi-port control panel, the 1733L SAN director tester simplifies test setup, execution and analysis, resulting in faster test completion.

"We want the most robust test equipment when we are running tests on our storage directors, so the ability to simulate real conditions and test at true wire speed is very important," said Chris Bischoff, technical marketing engineer at Cisco. "In our performance testing, we have confirmed that the new Cisco MDS 9513 Multilayer Director operates at true 4 Gb/s wire speed, regardless of frame size, using Agilent's SAN director tester."

This new director tester reduces the test cost by more than 60 percent compared with prior solutions. It also reduces maintenance and operational costs, making this tester a more cost-effective solution than traditional methods for testing director switches.

The Agilent SAN director tester:

--generates full line rate 4Gb/s data traffic on 128 ports simultaneously;

--collects results from all ports concurrently, including throughput, latency and error statistics;

--includes an intuitive graphical user interface;

--tests the robustness of the director switch by providing realistic network load and fault conditions; and

--accelerates the qualification cycle and expedites time-to-market by providing multiple automated test scripts.

"Our SAN director tester sets the new standard for scalability testing," said Siegfried Gross, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Digital Verification Solutions Division. "As we continuously enhance our test solutions, we ensure that our customers are always equipped with the right tools to support them throughout the entire product development, manufacturing and delivery cycles."

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The Agilent 1733L SAN director tester system is available now at a price of $440,000.

More information about the Agilent 1733L SAN director tester is available at www.agilent.com/find/directortester. Photos of the product are available at www.agilent.com/find/directortester_image.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 20,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $5.1 billion in fiscal 2005. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.

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