Leading OEM Manufacturers and Intel Deliver Gigabit Solutions

Intel Gigabit Adapter Shatters Previous Throughput Levels

HILLSBORO, Ore., Nov. 11, 1998 -- Intel Corporation announced today that Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, Siemens, Toshiba and Unisys are shipping or will ship Intel® Gigabit Ethernet technology as part of their products. Gigabit technology delivers the performance necessary to meet the requirements of customers faced with increasing network traffic from bandwidth-intensive applications, such as distributed databases, intranets and the Internet.

"Gigabit Ethernet is rapidly emerging as an excellent solution for the next generation of high-bandwidth networking infrastructure," said Mike Wolf, industry analyst, Cahners In-Stat Group. "The protocol is scalable, open and fully compatible with the huge installed base of Ethernet and Fast Ethernet nodes."

To further advance the adoption of Gigabit technology, Intel recently announced plans to work with Level One Communications to introduce Gigabit Ethernet products designed for Category 5 copper wiring. Copper wiring comprises the majority of the installed network cabling.

"Momentum is building behind Gigabit solutions in the networking community," said Greg Lang, business unit manager for Intel's Network Infrastructure Organization. "We're driving standards, developing technologies and creating solutions to meet the needs of tomorrow's networks."

"Combining Compaq ingenuity with Intel Gigabit networking silicon means customers purchasing Gigabit adapters will benefit from award-winning performance and advanced features like Adapter Fault Tolerance and PCI Hot Plug*," said Jeffrey Low, director of marketing of Compaq's Networks and Access Communications Division. "We've been shipping Gigabit adapters to leading-edge customers since August."

LANQuest Labs Testing
The performance potential of Gigabit technology was demonstrated in recently-completed benchmark testing at LANQuest Labs, a leading independent network product testing laboratory. The Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Server Adapter achieved throughput of 634 megabits per second (Mbps) in a Windows* NT* server environment and 670 Mbps in Novell NetWare* server environment. This performance was 82 percent faster than the nearest competitor in a Windows NT environment and 273 percent faster than the nearest competitor in a NetWare environment. Adapters based on Intel Gigabit silicon consistently outperformed all other Gigabit Ethernet adapters in every test.

LANQuest Labs used the latest released adapters and drivers in all tests. All adapters were installed and configured in accordance with the products' installation guides instructions. Further details are available at LANQuest's Web site at www.lanquest.com.

All Intel networking products are available worldwide through a network of distributors and value-added resellers. Additional product information is available at (800) 538-3373 for U.S. and Canadian customers; at (44) 1-793-431-155 for European customers; or at (503) 264-7354 for other international customers. Information on Intel's entire family of networking solutions can be found at www.intel.com/network.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.