Intel Announces InfiniBand* Product Validation Collaboration On Dell Servers

Effort Drives Product Development Progress, Improves Platform Functionality

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 28, 2001 - Displaying further support for its InfiniBand Architecture components, Intel Corporation announced today that it is working together with Dell to validate Intel InfiniBand products. By examining how Intel InfiniBand software and components behave in configuration and stress testing with Dell's PowerEdge server platforms, Dell will be a key validation collaborator for tuning, testing, and optimization of InfiniBand products on industry-standard servers. The announcement was made at Intel Developer Forum, Fall 2001, at San Jose, Calif.

"Despite the challenging environment for the computer industry today, it is exciting to see so many of the industry's key players devoting significant product development resources to InfiniBand architecture because customers will ultimately benefit through more flexible and powerful standards-based systems," said Tom Macdonald, general manager of the Advanced Components Division of Intel's Enterprise Platform Group. "We are very pleased to be working with Dell to optimize and test our InfiniBand products in preparation for market adoption."

Dell has been a key member of the InfiniBand Trade Association since its inception. InfiniBand architecture's easier connectivity, reduced latency, improved bandwidth and enhanced interoperability features increase performance, reliability and scalability of Intel architecture-based servers.

"Working to validate Intel InfiniBand* products on Dell PowerEdge servers is an important part of Dell's commitment to the development of industry-standard systems that deliver the performance and scalability needed for data center applications," said Randy Groves, vice president and general manager of Dell's Enterprise Systems Group.

Also at IDF
Intel and Dell are demonstrating two separate InfiniBand enabled solutions targeted for datacenter deployment.

Intel is one of seven founding companies of the InfiniBand Trade Association, including Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, aiming to deliver products based on a new common I/O specification to deliver a channel-based, switched fabric technology that the entire industry can adopt. To generate broad, industry-wide implementation of an InfiniBand infrastructure, Intel and other key information technology system suppliers are developing a variety of building blocks to support servers, switches, software and connections between storage and networking devices within an InfiniBand fabric. More than 230 companies have joined the InfiniBand Trade Association since its launch in 1999.

About IDF
Intel Developer Forum is a worldwide program that gives developers the technical information and vision they need to succeed in creating innovative products for the Internet economy. The IDF Fall 2001 conference features a full slate of sessions and hands-on labs, along with numerous demonstrations of cutting-edge products and technologies. Industry participants include software and hardware developers of communications equipment, servers, PC and handheld clients. Visit http://developer.intel.com/idf for more on the IDF conferences (San Jose, Calif., Aug. 27-30; Tokyo, Sept. 26-27; Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 22-23; Shenzhen, People's Republic of China, Oct. 25-26). For the latest information on technology developments throughout the year, visit Intel Developer Update at http://developer.intel.com/update.

Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

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