Contact Information: MEDIA CONTACT: Victoria McDonald Finisar Corporation (408) 542-4261 victoria.mcdonald@finisar.com
Finisar Introduces Second-Generation PCI-Express Protocol Analyzer for Computing and Storage Applications
Enables High-Performance Correlation Across Multiple Devices and Protocols for PCIe Market
| Source: Finisar
SUNNYVALE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- April 2, 2007 -- Committed to providing the most comprehensive,
flexible, and advanced testing solutions to its customers, Finisar
Corporation (NASDAQ : FNSR ) announced the second-generation PCI-Express
(PCIe) protocol analyzer for its Bus Doctor® platform. Finisar's new
PCIe protocol analyzer supports both 2.5 and 5.0 Gb/s data rates and is the
only testing platform that correlates PCIe traffic with 14 other protocols
resulting in the highest level of accuracy in a multi-protocol environment.
This combination of capabilities helps developers quickly identify and
resolve errors and impairments in a wide variety of PCIe-based
applications.
PCIe is a key technology for removing system bus bottlenecks and improving
overall performance in computing and storage applications. PCIe was
developed as the replacement I/O bus for PCI and PCI-X and is present in
almost all new computers shipped. For computing and storage applications,
PCIe provides a significant improvement in bandwidth for moving data in
devices such as Host Board Adapters (HBAs), server and storage arrays, and
Network Interface Cards (NICs).
"PCIe is clearly a dominant technology in computing and storage
applications," said Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst, Taneja
Group. "Finisar is alone in extending to developers the ability to
correlate between multiple protocols that span across both applications.
Bus Doctor is a compelling tool for developers needing to bring world-class
PCIe products to market quickly."
Effective performance, however, involves the entire system, not just the
main system bus. With its broad support of computing protocols, the Bus
Doctor is able to provide complete end-to-end visibility into the
multi-protocol systems that comprise today's complex computing and storage
applications. Bus Doctor tracks packets across 14 different protocol
standards -- including Serial ATA (SATA), Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and
SCSI -- enabling accurate correlation as well as full packet visibility at
each crossover point. In this way, developers can accelerate design cycles
and substantially improve time to market.
"It is critical for developers to have access to tools that give them deep
visibility into high-speed bus and fabric transactions," said Jim Pappas,
director of Initiative Marketing, Intel Corporation. "Companies like
Finisar play an important role in sustaining PCIe's rapid pace of
innovation by providing the comprehensive testing platforms and expertise
developers need to accomplish this."
Finisar's Bus Doctor PCIe analyzer supports the industry's largest capture
buffer of 18.4 GBytes, twice the size of competing solutions, providing
support for tapping methods commonly used by system board and peripheral
card developers, and offering the widest breadth of advanced error
detection and diagnostic capabilities to speed application development.
"For storage companies, moving from PCI-X to high-speed serial PCIe solves
the bandwidth bottleneck issue but made it more difficult to track and
trace the exchange of packets," said Jason Zhang, storage product
department general manager of Inspur, a leading provider of server and
storage products in China. "The flexibility offered by Finisar's Bus
Doctor significantly reduces this complexity and helps speed development of
products."
The 5 Gb/s Bus Doctor PCIe Protocol Analyzer will begin to sample in June.
Orders are being accepted now for shipments in August. For more
information about Finisar's proven solutions for storage network testing
and optimization, visit www.finisar.com or contact a Finisar Solution
Expert at 1.408.548.1000 or sales@finisar.com.
The Growing PCI-Express Market
PCI-Express is the evolutionary replacement for the venerated PCI
interconnection standard. Today nearly every PC and server with an x86
architecture has incorporated a PCIe bus, making it the universal computing
standard. In communications applications, PCIe was used in more than 17
million boards. According to In-Stat, PCIe will be used in over 440
million devices by 2010, with 37.2 million of these in communications
applications. PCIe improves upon the limitations of PCI by allowing for
serial interconnections, higher throughput, and more efficient management
of multiple peripherals with a bus frequency up to 5.0 GHz.
About Finisar
Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ : FNSR ) is a technology leader for fiber optic
components and subsystems and network test and monitoring systems. These
products enable high-speed data communications for networking and storage
applications over Ethernet Local Area Networks (LANs), Fibre Channel
Storage Area Networks (SANs), and Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) using
Fibre Channel, IP, SAS, SATA and SONET/SDH protocols. The Company's
headquarters is in Sunnyvale, California, USA.
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The statements contained in this press release that are not purely
historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements
regarding Finisar's expectations, beliefs, intentions, or strategies
regarding the future. All forward-looking statements included in this press
release are based upon information available to Finisar as of the date
hereof, and Finisar assumes no obligation to update any such
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and
uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from
those projected. These risks include those associated with the rapidly
evolving markets for Finisar's products and uncertainty regarding the
development of these markets; Finisar's historical dependence on sales to a
limited number of customers and fluctuations in the mix of customers in any
period; ongoing new product development and introduction of new and
enhanced products; the challenges of rapid growth followed by periods of
contraction; and intensive competition. Further information regarding these
and other risks relating to Finisar's business is set forth in Finisar's
Annual Report on Form 10-K and other interim reports as filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.