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QLogic Delivers SAN Support For Intel Itanium 2

Uptime, Scalability, Large Data Sets and Security - QLogic Corp., the company that simplifies storage area networks (SANs), announced full support for the new Intel Itanium 2 processor and architecture in Windows and Linux environments. Drivers are available for QLogic Fibre Channel and SCSI controller chips and host bus adapters (HBAs), including QLogic's new ISP2312 Fibre Channel chip. The ISP2312 is the processor platform that powers "Fibre Down" (Fibre Channel connectivity integrated into server system motherboards) applications and the new QLogic SANblade QLA2340 family of high-performance host bus adapters (HBAs).

The Intel Itanium 2 processor is designed from the ground up to address the top challenges facing enterprise customers: massive data sets, scalability, security and high-uptime. Applications that benefit from the Itanium 2 processor include: high-performance computing, database applications like Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, business intelligence, and security transactions. Compute-intensive, custom applications for vertical markets such as the oil and financial industries also benefit greatly from the Itanium 2 processor.

"Numerous enterprise SAN applications will benefit from the powerful combination of the Itanium 2 processor and QLogic's I/O solutions," said Mike Graf, Product Line Manager for Intel's Itanium processor family. "The Intel Itanium 2 processor has gained overwhelming industry support from leading technology companies like QLogic. OEM and enterprises customers can depend on this support and a strong, long-term roadmap that emphasizes generation-togeneration compatibility to maximize their investments."

The Itanium 2 processor uses an Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC)-based design that enables new levels of compute parallelism and scalability for large workloads. In addition it employs an Innovative machine check architecture and extensive ECC coverage to deliver enterprise-class reliability and availability for high up-time environments.

"Intel's enormous R&D investment and economies of scale have resulted in an open enterprise architecture that delivers outstanding performance and value," said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp. "Its common building blocks and broad industry support give choice and flexibility to solutions providers and end users."

QLogic has been involved since the early development of the Intel Itanium architecture, supplying hardware and software during design and testing. QLogic produces the industry's only end-to-end SAN infrastructure, consisting of highly scaleable products ranging from controllers and HBAs for storage devices and servers, to QLogic SANbox2 switches, which are capable of networking storage at distances in excess of 100 km, scalable to over seven million nodes. This broad range of high-performance products, available from a single vendor, allows OEMs, VARs storage service providers (SSPs) and endusers to build cost-effective, plug-and-play SANs that are centrally managed and highly available.

About QLogic

QLogic Corporation simplifies the process of networking storage for OEMs, resellers and system integrators with the only end-to-end infrastructure in the industry, consisting of award-winning controller chips, host bus adapters, network switches and management software to move data from the storage device through the fabric to the server.

QLogic designs and produces solutions based on all storage network technologies including SCSI, iSCSI, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel. A member of the S&P 500 Index, QLogic was recently ranked number 25 on Forbes' Best 200 Small Companies and number 20 on Fortune's 100 Fastest Growing Companies.

for more information see www.qlogic.com.