Press Release

QLOGIC CORPORATION ANNOUNCES THE ISP/QLA12160, ULTRA3 SCSI CONTROLLER/HOST BUS ADAPTER AT COMDEX

COSTA MESA, Calif.--Nov. 16, 1998-- QLogic Corporation (NASDAQ:QLGC), a leader in I/O technology and enclosure management solutions, today announces the ISP12160, PCI-to-dual channel Ultra3 (sometimes referred to as Ultra160/m SCSI) controller and its corresponding host bus adapter, the QLA12160. These products are the latest members of QLogic's industry-leading SCSI product line. Featuring a 64-bit PCI host-bus interface and three on-chip processors, the ISP12160 supports data transfer rates of up to 160 Mbytes/sec per channel, and uses QLogic's newly announced RIO (Reduced Interrupt Operation) driver architecture which minimizes host-CPU utilization resulting in system performance improvements.

The ISP12160 provides QLogic customers a pin compatible upgrade path from the previous generation ISP1280 Ultra2 solution. Host software is also compatible between the Ultra2 and Ultra3 SCSI generations. As with all QLogic's parallel SCSI products ISP/QLA12160 shares a common host software architecture with its award winning Fibre Channel product line. This results in minimal changes when migrating firmware and host software between parallel SCSI and Fibre Channel applications.

The feature set of the ISP/QLA12160 includes:

• Supports 160 MB/s data transfer rate per channel
  • Accomplished via dual transition clocking technology, so that data rate is doubled without increasing SCSI bus clock frequency. CRC (Cyclical Redundancy Check) an improved method of checking data integrity
  • CRC is a more robust method of detecting data transmission errors.
• Domain validation
  • Enables empirical testing upon initialization of SCSI bus devices to ensure proper configuration of all components.
• RIO Support
  • RIO (Reduced Interrupt Operation) is a technologically advanced software driver architecture that takes advantage of QLogic's unique, RISC-based design. Using the on-board RISC, RIO implements a powerful, reduced interrupt algorithm which diminishes the CPUs requirement to manage I/O and results in more of the CPU power being applied to user applications

Based on the original ISP architecture the ISP12160 uses an on-chip RISC processor to manage I/O activity and the host system interface. This off-loads I/O management functions from the host CPU allowing the CPU to perform more user-application work. Combined with the new RIO driver architecture, the ISP12160 and its companion QLA12160 provide the most efficient I/O interface available in the marketplace. Not only are the ISP12160 and companion QLA12160 efficient, the three on-chip processor design generates high I/O rates while minimizing host CPU utilization and will support approximately 25,000 I/O's per second.

"As a rapidly growing RAID controller supplier and industry pioneer in the global computer storage marketplace, time to market is critical to DPT's continued success. As such, designing QLogic's newly announced Ultra3 chips into our next-generation of high-performance storage controllers is a natural choice for DPT," said Steve Goldman, president of DPT. "We currently use QLogic ISP chips in our SmartRAID IV controllers for SCSI and Fibre Channel-based systems. In addition to the superior performance and efficiency exhibited by QLogic's products, we have found that cross-generation compatibility of the ISP architecture makes migration to a new technology significantly less risky and much faster than alternative interface architectures." Larry Fortmuller, vice president and general manager of QLogic's Computer Systems Group stated "The ease of migration and high efficiency designed into QLogic's SCSI and Fibre Channel controller products is gaining much wider acceptance by companies such as DPT whose future success is dependent on time-to market and technological superiority. As an I/O technology leader we will continue to focus on delivering the advanced capabilities and high levels of technical support required by these industry pioneers."

Package and Availability
The ISP/QLA12160 ships in a 492-pin PBGA package. Samples of the ISP12160 will begin in the first quarter of 1999.

About QLogic
QLogic Corporation is a leading designer and supplier of semiconductor and board-level I/O and enclosure management products. The company's products provide high-performance interface connections for computer systems and their attached data storage peripherals, such as hard disk and tape drives, CD-ROM drives and RAID subsystems. In addition, QLogic provides enclosure management products that monitor and communicate management information related to components that are critical to computer system and storage subsystem reliability and availability. QLogic's highly integrated, fully featured solutions are targeted at the computer system, storage device and storage subsystem marketplaces.

The company is utilizing its expertise to develop products for emerging standards such as Fibre Channel and Ultra3, as well as, SAF-TE, SES, and IPMI enclosure management solutions.

For more information about QLogic and its product lines, contact QLogic Corp., 3545 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626; telephone: 800/662-4471 (sales); 714/438-2200 (corporate); fax: 714/668-5008; home page https://www.qlc.com.

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Forward-looking statements contained in this document may involve risks and uncertainties. The company wishes to advise readers that a number of important risk factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include new and changing technologies; a change in semiconductor foundry conditions; fluctuations or cancellations in orders from customers; and the company's ability to compete effectively with other companies. These and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are also discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Form S-3, Form 10-K, and Form 10-Q.

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