Fibre Channel Industry Association Ratifies Standard for 8Gbs Fabrics Vote Extends 8Gbs FC From an 'Inside the Box' Storage Device Interconnect Into Switched San Fabrics SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) and its sister association, the Fibre Channel Industry Association-Japan (FCIA-J), today announced that its members have ratified the extension of the Fibre Channel roadmap to extend 8Gbs Fibre Channel from an "inside the box" storage device interconnect into switched SAN fabrics. The Fibre Channel industry is now positioned to help customers preserve their 2Gbs Fibre Channel (2GFC) and 4Gbs Fibre Channel (4GFC) infrastructure investments and avoid costly 'fork lift' replacements. The vote supports the ANSI INCITS T11 Technical Committee development of the 8Gbs Fibre Channel (8GFC) electrical copper and optical interfaces in its FC-PI-4 standard and ensures that Fibre Channel continues to provide the highest performance available for storage interconnects. Cost Effective Fibre Channel Migration Preserves Current Investments While noting that its member companies are at the present time introducing new families of 4GFC and 10GFC products to the market, the FCIA explained that there is value in sharing the roadmap with customers. They can use the information that it contains on future product directions to plan a smooth migration to higher speed products when they become available with assurances that continued Fibre Channel investments will be completely cost effective, and backward compatible with legacy Fibre Channel products. When 8GFC products become available, expected to be in the 2007-2008 time frame, customers will be able to preserve their 2GFC and 4GFC infrastructure investments and avoid a costly "fork lift" replacement. The "auto-negotiation" feature of Fibre Channel enables 8GFC products to automatically sense and adapt to the data rate capability of connected lower speed Fibre Channel products without user intervention. For example, when attaching to a 4GFC product, an 8GFC product will automatically run at 4GFC. 4GFC products will be introduced this year. It is anticipated that they will enjoy broad market acceptance over the next several years as Fibre Channel continues to be the storage and SAN interconnect of choice throughout all small and large businesses. "We are pleased that the FCIA has once again helped prevent industry fragmentation by providing a clear and concise roadmap for future Fibre Channel migration as well as providing invaluable market feedback into the Fibre Channel standards community. With 8GFC on the roadmap, Fibre Channel's future is ensured by meeting future performance demands while preserving the current and ongoing investments that users make in the technology. Our roadmap enables suppliers and users to plan future products and architectures that complement the proven track record of Fibre Channel applications. Providing all the benefits of full backward compatibility to the large, rapidly growing Fibre Channel installed base, 8GFC will deliver the most cost-effective, highest performance for SAN applications," said Skip Jones, Chairman of the Fibre Channel Industry Association Speed Forum Committee. "Protecting investments is an important aspect of technology planning for both IT manufacturers and their customers, as it allows them to make better decisions about current and future technologies," said Richard Villars, Vice President of Storage Systems at IDC. "The FCIA roadmap for 8 Gigibit Fibre Channel solutions that are compatible with today's 2GFC and coming 4GFC products reflects a sensitivity to the importance of investment protection for existing SAN infrastructures." "We look forward to working with our partner vendors and suppliers to help ensure our customers have a smooth transition to the 8GFC Fabric" said John Howarth, Senior Director of Marketing, Xyratex. "As a leader in 2GFC and 4GFC Fibre Channel technology we support this new standard and recognize the importance of protecting our customers current investments while at the same time supporting faster and more efficient storage networking solutions." "The vote for 8GFC fabric is a watershed event for the entire SAN industry including manufacturers, distributors, VARs and end-users," said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp. "Manufacturers can now move full-speed ahead in one direction that is based on standards, while end-users are ensured of the backwards compatibility they need to protect their SAN investments. The vote also demonstrates the importance of the FCIA to the SAN industry." "PMC-Sierra supports the FCIA's decision in establishing 8GFC fabrics as the next generation SAN fabric which enables enterprise IT managers to protect and leverage their current storage equipment investments with a higher speed backward compatible roadmap that will meet their future storage demands," said Mark Stibitz, Vice President and General Manager of PMC-Sierra's Enterprise Storage Division. "PMC-Sierra plans to leverage its high speed mixed signal expertise to deliver optimized price-performance components that will enable 8GFC Fibre Channel to remain cost-effective and continue its lead for SAN connectivity." "As a leader in the Fibre Channel market place, McDATA supports our customers into the future as the market demands ever increasing performance," said Jeff Vogel, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, McDATA. "It's inevitable that we'll see a progression of increasing bandwidth options as our industry scales to meet the demands of data intensive applications running in the network. We're pleased to support FCIA's move to 8GFC Fibre Channel fabrics as the industry association is providing customers with a clear roadmap for performance increases as well as for migration due to the backward compatibility provided by the standard." "As a market leader in Fibre Channel solutions, LSI Logic is investing R&D dollars in developing a broad range of ASIC CoreWare(R) and storage standard products to support advances in storage interconnection technology. We will continue to leverage our position as a driver of industry standards to be a leader in the 8GFC market, as we have in previous generations," said Dave Jones, Vice President and General Manager of LSI Logic's Storage ASICs division." "I-TECH supports the FCIA's continued effort to meet the storage industry's needs by increasing Fibre Channel performance to 8GFC in SANs. I-TECH's leadership in analyzer technology for critical storage and network applications is embodied in the only analyzer in the industry uniquely positioned for the continued trend toward deeper trace memory and faster display-to-capture times that this technology requires. Our commitment to increased performance and interoperability is evident in our products and supports FCIA's roadmap." Steve Bucher, I-TECH CEO. "As the acknowledged leader in Fibre Channel Analysis, Finisar is committed to support advances in the industry. Our products play a key role in ensuring that the user community enjoys investment protection by confirming interoperability as new speed barriers are crossed. We see 8G as a substantial performance upgrade that will enable Fibre Channel SANs to continue to meet the growing demands that are placed on them and the mission-critical applications that they support." Dr. Brian Staff, Vice President of Marketing, Finisar Network Tools. "The industry's decision to establish 8GFC as the next generation speed advances the long term value proposition of Fibre Channel for all users," said Mike Smith, vice president of worldwide marketing Emulex Corporation. "8GFC Fibre Channel offers higher speed, backward compatibility and use of existing infrastructure--all without significant change in cost. As a leading supplier of SAN infrastructure, Emulex supports this decision and will continue to help drive positive change and the advancement of Fibre Channel technology for the benefit of end users." "As the world leader in networking technology, Cisco has always been a strong proponent of industry standards. Extending the 8GFC standard, with its higher performance and backward compatibility, to fabric applications will help ensure that users have a strong future growth path for their Fibre Channel storage networks while preserving their investment in current technology," said Ed Chapman, Senior Director of Product Management in Cisco's Storage Business Unit. "Offering customers the utmost flexibility for designing their SANs, the Cisco MDS 9000 Family of switches has been built to support any number of existing and future storage transport protocols. Similar to our support for 4GFC, which we expect to deliver in calendar year 2005, Cisco will provide support for 8GFC as market demand warrants." "The addition of 8GFC as the next step in a fully compatible line of link technologies demonstrates the continued aggressive developments planned for Fibre Channel." said Jay Kidd, CTO of Brocade Communications Systems. "As faster server and faster storage devices come to market, Fibre Channel is evolving in a cost effective, backwards compatible manner to meet real customer needs from entry to enterprise applications." "The definition of a physical layer standard that is fully interoperable with the 4GFC solutions is a win for customers. They can safely make investments in 4GFC technology available now from companies such as Broadcom, knowing that it will fully interoperate with next generation products and technologies," said Michael McDonald, Senior Director of Broadcom's Fibre Channel Storage Line of Business responsible for the company's recently introduced 4GFC fabric switch silicon products. "As a leader in Fibre Channel component technology, Agilent understands the value of delivering greater price/performance and providing a growth path that preserves existing infrastructure and customer investment," said Martin Scott, Vice President and General Manager of Agilent's Input/Output Solutions Division. "We are delighted to participate in the FCIA and T-11 standard groups and we're committed to delivering 8GFC solutions in the future. Based on our early experience with a successful Tachyon 4GFC product introduction, it's clear that new speeds will be adopted more easily by providing a flexible upgrade path and by avoiding disruption to the IT infrastructure." About FCIA The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is a nonprofit international organization of manufacturers, systems integrators, developers, systems vendors, industry professionals and end users. With 80 member companies and FCIA affiliates in the United States and Japan, FCIA is committed to delivering a broad base of Fibre Channel infrastructure to support a wide array of industry applications within the mass storage and IT-based arenas. FCIA working groups focus on specific aspects of the technology, targeting both vertical and horizontal markets including storage, video, networking and SAN management. For more information on FCIA, please visit our web site: http://www.fibrechannel.org/, contact us: or call 1-415-561-6270. DATASOURCE: Fibre Channel Industry Association; LSI Logic Corporation CONTACT: Erin Lutz, media representative for Skip Jones, FCIA Speed Forum Chairman, +1-949-293-1055, or ; or Diana Hodges of LSI Logic Corporation, +1-408-433-4245, or Web site: http://www.lsilogic.com/

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