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High-Speed RAID Array Offers 80-Mbyte per second LVD Host Interface

WOBURN, MA (December 28, 1998) Winchester Systems Inc. announced its new SCSI Low-Voltage Differential (LVD) host interfaces for its entire line of FlashDisk® RAID disk arrays. The new LVD interface (also called Ultra-SCSI 2) offers up to 80 Mbytes per second data throughput twice that of its previous Ultra-SCSI offering. This performance breakthrough is now standard on the company's Departmental and Enterprise FlashDisk RAID disk arrays and optional on their Workgroup models.

FlashDisk RAID arrays continue to deliver 9,779 I/O operations per second. “FlashDisk is as fast as solid-state disk yet provides the best in fault-tolerant RAID,” according the Jerry Namery, the company's chief technology officer. These high random I/O data rates make FlashDisk ideal for transaction-oriented applications including financial, manufacturing, database, web servers, e-commerce, Y2K testing and software development. Now, the improved throughput of LVD makes FlashDisk RAID arrays also perfect for high data throughput applications including imaging, data warehousing, video, audio, large sequential file transfers, file copying, backup and other sequential file transfers.

By providing both high transaction rates and high throughput rate, FlashDisk RAID is ideal for most real world environments that have a mixture of both random and sequential applications. This makes it suitable for any disk intensive environment. “Productivity gains created by installing FlashDisk RAID systems are truly dramatic,” stated Joel Leider, the company's chief executive. “Dozens, or more typically hundreds, of users all benefit so your return on investment is measured in months or even weeks,” he added.

FlashDisk can now be multi-hosted to three servers utilizing the three LVD host ports. Alternately, all three ports can be attached to separate host adapters in a single server to increase overall performance. Further, the new LVD interface also permits servers to be connected at longer distances, now up to 25 meters from the storage.

All FlashDisk systems with LVD are compatible with industry standard LVD adapters and are backward compatible with industry standard Ultra-SCSI and all other SCSI host adapters. FlashDisk RAID is a completely “open system” and looks like a standard SCSI disk to the host. No software drivers are required. FlashDisk is compatible with, and targeted for, mid-range server applications including SUN Sparc, HP 9000, IBM RS/6000, Compaq VAX and Alpha as well as Pentium and Pentium PRO applications. Unlike many proprietary products from server manufacturers, every FlashDisk RAID Array can easily be redeployed from one server to another with no software changes, no new parts and no extra cost as needs change.

FlashDisk RAID is available for workgroup, departmental and enterprise scale applications in capacities from 9 Gbytes to well over 1,000 Gbytes in tabletop, pedestal and rackmount enclosures. Prices range from 30 to 35 cents per megabyte depending upon configuration. A FlashDisk RAID pedestal or rackmount model equipped with 16 low-profile 9.1 Gbytes drives, triple LVD host ports and high speed RAID controller is $45,592 for 145.6 Gbytes or only 31 cents per megabyte. With eleven 18.2-Mbyte drives and 200.2 Gbytes total capacity, FlashDisk RAID is $63,033 or also 31 cents per megabyte. Delivery is two to four weeks. Winchester Systems is a manufacturer of high performance peripherals for demanding industrial, government and commercial applications.

About Winchester Systems Inc.

Founded in 1981, Winchester Systems Inc. is dedicated to providing technically superior disk and tape solutions to a diverse clientele worldwide, including many Fortune 500 companies and federal agencies. Since 1989, customers such as Honeywell, MCI, Motorola, Boeing, Tropicana, Siemens, Ceridian, Deloitte & Touche and the U.S. Coast Guard have deployed Winchester Systems' FlashDisk solutions with great success. Many customers report that FlashDisk accelerates their disk-intensive applications by 100 percent to 500 percent. FlashDisk massively parallel cached RAID solutions deliver fast, simple, reliable and cost-effective access to server data.

Winchester Systems pioneered the concept of “plug-and-play” OpenRAID storage by adhering to strict industry SCSI standards without relying on proprietary host software, drivers, or storage managers. Winchester Systems' FlashDisk competes with RAID storage systems from EMC (NYSE: EMC), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HP), and Sun (NASDAQ: SUNW). More information is available at http://www.winsys.com, or by calling 800-325-3700.

Winchester Systems, FlashDisk and OpenRAID are trademarks or registered trademarks of Winchester Systems All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

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