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SGI Delivers Industry First: 4 Gigabit Fibre Channel Storage Array
First of Its Kind SGI InfiniteStorage TP9700 Speeds Access and Simplifies Management for Data-Intensive Environments MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., (February 8, 2005)To address soaring demand from users for more powerful storage solutions, Silicon Graphics (NYSE: SGI) today unveiled the SGI® InfiniteStorage TP9700 RAID storage array. This marks the industry's first Fibre Channel storage array equipped with a 4Gb/second (gigabit per second) Fibre Channel interface, doubling the performance of SGI's previous offerings. The increased performance of the TP9700 means that users need far less infrastructure - adapters, cabling, switch ports, etc - to access and manage their storage. Bottom line, this results in lower cost of ownership and far simpler configurations to manage. IT managers are experiencing 80 - 200% annual growth in data. For these users, faster data access means greater productivity and shorter time to discovery. The TP9700 array can significantly reduce the time and complexity required to interact with these increasingly large data sets. "The SGI TP9700 is a dramatic breakthrough in data management, giving users more data transfer throughput than ever before with even less complexity," said Gabriel Broner, senior vice president and general manager, Storage and Software Group, SGI. "The TP9700 is a logical extension to the SGI InfiniteStorage family and a powerful foundation for data protection, management, and high-availability features that users have come to rely on from SGI." Based on the new 6998 Fibre Channel controller that is built on the XBB high-density storage architecture from Engenio Information Technologies, Inc., (Announced separately today: www.engenio.com), the TP9700 delivers across-the-board performance improvements with eight 4Gb/s Fibre Channel host - double previous models. This gives customers flexibility in how they chose to use the 1600MB/s of sustained bandwidth the system delivers. These performance improvements will be integrated into the SGI InfiniteStorage Storage Area Network (SAN), Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) platforms. "SGI and Engenio are a natural combination to deliver this market-leading technology," said Dianne McAdam, partner and senior analyst, Data Mobility Group. "Early integration with major storage market standards like SMI-S and 4 Gbit Fibre Channel is one of the reasons SGI can be viewed as a leading provider where big data is concerned." The two companies demonstrated the first 4Gb/s Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) at the Supercomputing 2004 exhibition in November 2004. The demonstration incorporated two TP9700 systems, each with 5.8 terabytes of raw storage and connected via a 4Gb Fibre Channel SAN running the SGI filesystem XFS®. About SGI InfiniteStorage Solutions The SGI TP9700 is available today for IRIX, and Altix platforms. Support for additional server platforms will be available in the second quarter of 2005. For more information, visit: www.sgi.com/products/storage/. SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery Silicon Graphics, SGI, XFS, Altix, IRIX, Origin, the SGI cube and the SGI logo are registered trademarks and The Source of Innovation and Discovery is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding SGI technologies and third-party technologies that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. The viewer is cautioned not to rely unduly on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future or current performance. Such risks and uncertainties include long-term program commitments, the performance of third parties, the sustained performance of current and future products, financing risks, the impact of competitive markets, the ability to integrate and support a complex technology solution involving multiple providers and users, the acceptance of applicable technologies by markets and customers, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's most recent SEC reports, including its reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. | |