QLogic iSCSI HBAs Receive Additional Qualification and Support from Network Appliance

Aliso Viejo, Calif. - November 17, 2004 -- QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC), the company that powers storage area networks (SANs), today announced that its SANblade QLA4010 iSCSI HBAs are now supported by Network Appliance for NetApp SnapDrive software and iSCSI SAN Boot Support on Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows 2003. iSCSI offload, multiple operating system support, and boot-from-SAN capabilities will help customers better leverage high performance and high availability IP SANs using NetApp storage systems in Windows environments.

The QLogic SANblade HBA offload engine preserves server CPU cycles for business-critical applications. For customers who want the efficiencies of standardizing on a single iSCSI HBA, SANblade HBA device drivers and management software are available to connect storage systems to servers running Windows, Linux® and Solaris® operating systems.

"NetApp has a longstanding relationship with QLogic to deliver open-standard storage solutions to customers," said Patrick Rogers, vice president of marketing at Network Appliance. "Our collaboration with QLogic and other industry vendors reaffirms a commitment to delivering the competitive advantages of a Fibre Channel SAN along with the maturity, ease, functionality, and pervasiveness of Ethernet technologies."

"Businesses that widely use Ethernet infrastructures can now leverage all the benefits of networked storage in the rest of their business," said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp. "With innovations like boot-from-SAN and SnapDrive, and qualified solutions that are supported by the NetApp Open iSCSI program, Network Appliance gives customers peace of mind that their iSCSI SANs meet and exceed industry standards for quality and performance."

QLogic SANblade QLA4010 iSCSI HBA Advantages
The SANblade QLA4010 iSCSI-to-PCI-X HBA offers high performance, low CPU utilization, and server connectivity directly to iSCSI storage or to iSCSI storage through an Ethernet network. Key SANblade QLA4010 features and benefits include:

  • Offloading iSCSI and TCP/IP Processing, which provides access to a high performance iSCSI SAN without sacrificing server performance. Interrupts, CPU utilization, memory bus utilization and host bus access associated with iSCSI and TCP/IP are significantly reduced.
  • Common iSCSI and Fibre Channel HBA Interface, which provides the most cost effective and simple architecture for server connectivity to SANs standardized on a single HBA interface.
  • Broad Platform Support, which ensures the drives for popular operating systems are available.
  • Boot from SAN, which makes changing, adding and removing servers easier and faster by consolidating operating systems on external storage and booting servers from external storage.
  • Centralized Security Featuresb>, which allow customers wanting to centralize patches and virus update management on the boot image by eliminating the need to install operating system updates.

Powered by 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. A member of the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100, QLogic was named to the following during fiscal year 2004: (i) Fortune's 100 Fastest Growing Companies list for the fourth consecutive year; (ii) Forbes' Best 200 Small Companies for the fifth consecutive year; and (iii) Business Week's list of 100 Hot Growth Companies. For more information visit www.qlogic.com.

Press Contacts:
Gerry Ansel
QLogic Corporation
(949) 389-7664
gerry.ansel@qlogic.com

Jaime Leigh Le
Network Appliance, Inc.
(408) 822-3761
jle@netapp.com

Investor Contact:
Tony Massetti
QLogic Corporation
(949) 389-7533
tony.massetti@qlogic.com