Features - Financial Plays Of The Week:

QLogic, McDATA CO-DEVELOP EMBEDDED SWITCHES FOR BLADE SERVERS

QLogic Corp and McDATA Corp announced they would co-develop an embedded Fibre Channel switch for blade servers as part of an exclusive multi-year alliance. The server-embedded and McDATA-interoperable switch blade will complement McDATA best-in-class Directors, fabric switches and multi-protocol SAN routers. This will provide customers with another option to extend a McDATA fabric from the core of the SAN to the rapidly expanding population of blade servers at the edge. The new embedded blade server switch is scheduled for OEM qualification in McDATA's fiscal fourth quarter of 2004 and will be sold through select QLogic and McDATA OEMs.

QLogic And McDATA Alliance

The first embedded blade server switch co-developed by the two companies will incorporate QLogic switch hardware plus firmware that enables interoperability in McDATA fabrics. The embedded blade server switch features a suite of advanced features for the enterprise including McDATA-mode interoperability from core-to-edge, open exchange of management data, zoning, security and partitioning.

The exclusive alliance between QLogic and McDATA is based solely on server-embedded switches and will be in full compliance with FC-SW open standards. In the future, the two companies intend to build on their alliance and bring to market increasing levels of interoperability, value-added end-to-end management, security and performance services.

"A large cross section of Global 2000 corporations, SAN VARs and storage OEMs are already integrating McDATA directors and QLogic bladed server switches," said Tony Asaro, Enterprise Strategy Group. "A seamless interoperable McDATA core-to-bladed server offering will simplify SAN connectivity for customers, as well as expand market opportunities for McDATA and QLogic in the hot bladed server market."

Enterprise customers are including blade servers as a key component of their IT consolidation strategies to enable greater efficiency and manageability, serviceability and higher levels of utilization. According to IDC, it is estimated that the blade server and blade switch market will reach more than $4.3 billion by 2006.

QLogic SAN Infrastructure For Bladed Servers

Developer of the world's first embedded SAN infrastructure for bladed servers, QLogic is the leading supplier of Fibre Channel switch modules and HBAs for bladed servers. Single-chip HBAs, switches and management controllers from QLogic provide fast, reliable and scalable storage expansion in an ultra-compact form-factor.

About QLogic

Since 1993, over 50 million QLogic products have shipped inside servers, workstations, RAID subsystems, tape libraries, disk and tape drives. These products were delivered to small, medium and large enterprises around the world. Powering solutions from leading companies like Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, NEC, Network Appliance, Quantum, StorageTek and Sun Microsystems, the broad line of QLogic controller chips, host bus adapters, network switches and management software move data from storage devices through the network fabric to servers. For more information visit www.qlogic.com.