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

SUNNYVALE, CA, Apr 02, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX News Network) -- 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(R) 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.

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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