Press Release

DPT INTRODUCES SMARTRAID VI, THE WORLD'S FIRST FAMILY OF ULTRA160 SCSI AND FIBRE CHANNEL RAID CONTROLLERS; PRODUCT LINE BUILT ON EXCLUSIVE BABYLON ARCHITECTURE PLATFORM

MAITLAND, FL. -- November 15, 1999 -- Distributed Processing Technology® (DPT®), a leading supplier of high-performance SCSI and Fibre Channel hardware RAID solutions for servers and workstations, today unveiled SmartRAID® VI, the industry's first complete family of Ultra160 SCSI and Fibre Channel hardware RAID controllers. SmartRAID VI, DPT's sixth generation of peripheral controllers, include the Decade, Century, and Millennium RAID controllers for the PCI bus: RAID solutions for entry-level to enterprise servers. All SmartRAID VI products are based on DPT's exclusive Babylon architecture, yielding unmatched performance and scalability benefits. DPT will be showing the new SmartRAID VI products at COMDEX/Fall 1999 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Las Vegas Convention Center, booth L5010, November 15-19.

SmartRAID VI is the industry's first complete family of RAID controllers supporting the new Ultra160 SCSI standard, offering data transfer rates up to 160MB/sec per channel. In addition, all SmartRAID VI SCSI controllers can also support Fibre Channel. SmartRAID VI low-cost entry-level 32-bit PCI Decade Ultra160 SCSI RAID controllers are designed for entry-level and small business servers. High performance 64-bit PCI Century Ultra160 SCSI RAID controllers are designed for department and workgroup servers. For high-end and enterprise servers, extreme performance 64-bit PCI Millennium Ultra160 SCSI and Fibre Channel RAID controllers are the perfect choice.

DPT's Babylon architecture significantly enhances the performance, scalability, flexibility, and time-to-market of our entire spectrum of RAID controller products," said Steve Goldman, President and founder of DPT. "Babylon's modular, layered design allows shortened controller modification and test cycle time. This means new, faster and more powerful technologies can be incorporated into our controllers quickly, to the benefit of our customers."

DPT-Exclusive Babylon Architecture Means Top Performance
DPT's Babylon architecture includes Parallel Pipelined Processing (P3) and advanced intelligent algorithms to achieve their industry-leading high level of performance. Parallel pipelined processing significantly increases controller performance by processing a virtually unlimited number of host commands concurrently. This is accomplished through the use of parallel command processing, hardware request schedulers, and the "Domino" high-speed RAID engine ASIC.

Advanced intelligent algorithms also work to boost SmartRAID VI performance. These include several RAID-5 write algorithms resulting in the fastest RAID-5 write processing in the industry. Read performance is enhanced through the use of predictive caching algorithms. These algorithms recognize seemingly random disk access patterns and pre-fetch anticipated read data to controller cache to speed I/O 20 to 50 times.

The Babylon architecture was introduced with the SmartRAID V family of controllers late last year. It is CPU-independent allowing easy portability across different CPU families, and it is multi-processor capable. The scalable and highly adaptable Babylon design will be the platform for future generations of internal RAID controllers as well as future external, bridge RAID controllers.

SmartRAID VI: The Best RAID Solution for any Server Application
The low-cost Decade (PM1564U3) is the world's first shipping Ultra160 SCSI hardware RAID controller, and is designed for entry-level and small business servers or power workstations. The Decade provides full RAID functionality and features, with industry-exclusive scalability, at a low, attractive price point. All Decade controllers include an embedded Intel® i960® 31MIP RISC processor for both performance and low host CPU utilization, a 32-bit 33MHz PCI host interface, and 4MB of integrated EDO cache memory. As requirements grow, so can Decade's performance via the SmartRAID VI RAID Accelerator module (RA4060). The RA4060 allows the addition of up to 128MB of ECC-protected cache memory and includes DPT's "Domino" high-speed RAID engine.

High performance Century (PM2865U3) Ultra160 SCSI RAID controllers are designed for the mid-range performance server market including department and workgroup-class servers. They provide high-end RAID features and performance where cost is an issue. The Century features an Intel i960RN 80 MIP RISC processor, a 64-bit 33MHz PCI host interface, and capacity for 128MB of ECC-protected cache memory. Battery backup for controller cache is available and Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) software is supported.

Extreme performance Millennium Ultra160 SCSI (PM3966U3) and Fibre Channel (PM3966F) RAID controllers are designed for high-end and enterprise-class servers where performance is the top priority. Millennium controllers incorporate the fastest CPU offered by any RAID controller vendor: the Quantum Effects Design (QED®) RM7000, offering 520 MIPS of unsurpassed processing power. The Millennium also features a 64-bit 66MHz PCI host interface, capacity for 256MB of ECC-protected cache memory, battery backup for controller cache option, and support for Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) software.

All SmartRAID VI controllers include fault tolerance features that work to keep servers up and operating around-the-clock. Hardware RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, 5, 0+5 are supported as are JBOD applications. SAF-TE (SCSI-Accessed Fault-Tolerant Enclosure) and SES (SCSI Enclosure Services) storage device cabinet status tools allow real-time monitoring and event management. Dynamic array expansion permits drives to be added on-the-fly to live, operating arrays.

SmartRAID VI's exclusive modular hardware architecture allows performance and functional scalability not offered by others. All controllers are available with one, two, three, or four Ultra160 SCSI channels, controlling up to 60 SCSI devices. Ultra160 SCSI controllers with one or two channels can be easily upgraded to three or four channels via the use of optional SCSI channel expansion modules (SX4065U3). Each SCSI channel features both external and internal connectors. Single channel controllers can also be upgraded to include a single external Fibre Channel port via the Fibre Channel expansion module (SX4065F), allowing system designers to connect both SCSI and Fibre Channel devices simultaneously using a single controller.

All controllers feature PCI 2.2 and I2O compliance, flash-upgradable firmware and BIOS, full-featured storage management GUI configuration and storage management software, BIOS-based setup and RAID configuration utility, and command line management utility. Operating system compatibility includes Windows® NT®, Windows 2000, Win 95/98, Linux, NetWare®, SCO® OpenServer 5, SCO 3.2.4.2, SCO UnixWare® 7, UnixWare 2.1.4.2, BSDi, and FreeBSD. In addition, remote management and event notification features allow storage to be accessed and managed from anywhere in the world, anytime.

Availability and Pricing
The SmartRAID VI Decade is available through DPT's worldwide network of distribution channel partners. The Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of the single-channel PM1564U3 is $658. The Century and Millennium controllers will be available in early 2000. For more information about SmartRAID VI controllers and option modules contact DPT sales at 800-322-4DPT or 407-830-5522.

About DPT
DPT is a leading supplier of high-performance SCSI and Fibre Channel host adapters and RAID controllers, RAID subsystems, and storage management software for servers and workstations. DPT products are sold worldwide in more than 100 countries through server and storage OEMs and a network of distribution channel partners. The privately held company is headquartered in Maitland, Florida, USA. See DPT's Internet Web site (www.dpt.com) for company and product information.

# # #