Maxtor And Adaptec Simplify New Serial Attached SCSI Technology Deployment For System Builders And Resellers

Maxtor Corporation (NYSE: MXO) and Adaptec Inc. (Nasdaq: ADPT) announce they have collaborated to help simplify deployment of new Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) technology for system builders and resellers through extensive compatibility testing and the distribution of a special SAS evaluation kit to a select group of integrators worldwide. Included in the kit are Maxtor Atlas SAS hard disk drives with the Adaptec Serial Attached SCSI RAID 4800SAS and 4805SAS controllers and the Adaptec Storage Enclosure 335SAS. As a result, several resellers, including Rackable Systems, ZT Group and Colfax, have begun actively qualifying the products with workstations and servers in order to deliver next generation storage solutions to their customers.

"Adaptec and Maxtor have a long history of working together to ensure compatibility of our products. The SAS interface supports both SAS and Serial ATA disk drives to give OEMs, resellers and IT organizations unprecedented disk drive flexibility in their storage deployments," said Brendan Collins, vice president of enterprise marketing at Maxtor. "Fully tested drives, controllers and enclosures will help our mutual customers speed their time to market and deliver superior SAS solutions to the market."

As resellers experience first hand the significant benefits of SAS they are also finding the combination of Adaptec and Maxtor SAS products to be easy to deploy and reliable out-of-the-box, while delivering high performance.

Rackable Systems, Inc., one of the world's largest X86 server and storage manufacturers, tested the Adaptec and Maxtor SAS evaluation kit using advanced RAID 6 data protection against dual drive failures. "The RAID 6 performance levels we observed significantly exceeded our expectations," said Geoffrey Noer, senior director of product marketing at Rackable Systems. "Delivering RAID 6 functionality as part of Rackable Systems' SAS offerings that support both SAS and SATA drives will be compelling for a broad range of customers."

ZT Group is one of the top manufacturers of PCs, laptops and servers in the U.S. According to Hero Nagatomi, systems engineer at ZT Group, "Moving to Serial Attached SCSI is not difficult, especially if you are already familiar with Serial ATA technology. I was very impressed with the performance, scalability, and reliability of the Adaptec SAS technology. The backward compatibility with the present SATA and SATA II technology allows for seamless migration and smooth integration with existing server platforms. In addition, the Adaptec RAID controllers with the Maxtor drives just scream in terms of performance, and it was extremely easy to deploy."

According to Colfax International CEO Guatam Shah, "Any time you get something new in technology, it's like someone's given you a piece of Swiss chocolate and told you it's better than regular chocolate. Is SAS really better or is the industry just telling us it is? In this case, SAS delivers by offering the enterprise performance and reliability of SCSI with the capacity and price point of SATA. The combination of Maxtor and Adaptec SAS technology beat our expectations in performance, reliability and ease of deployment. We're excited to start selling next generation SAS solutions."

"SAS technology is attractive for resellers because it offers a number of benefits and business advantages," said Mike Karp, senior analyst at Enterprise Management Associates. "Because SAS is compatible with SATA, resellers and OEMs building SAS backplanes get double value out of their development efforts, allowing them to offer their customers tiered storage based on a single reference design. SAS also offers design simplicity because serial devices allow for easier airflow within machines, and easier device timing because timing is coordinated with a single serial signal and not with multiple parallel signals. Everybody wins."

"One of the key elements of SAS is that it maintains the ease-of-use and the SCSI command set that has made SCSI the de facto standard in enterprise computing environments," said Tim Connolly, vice president of marketing of the Data Protection Solutions Group at Adaptec. "SAS provides an ideal solution for applications requiring high storage capacities as well as demanding transaction-oriented or throughput intensive data environments. By partnering with industry leaders like Maxtor we are able to drive solutions that take compatibility issues off the table, allowing for easy deployment of SAS/SATA solutions."

Maxtor Atlas SAS drives are currently shipping and available at Maxtor distributors worldwide. Adaptec SAS RAID controllers, HBA and storage enclosure are also currently available through distribution to resellers and through the Adaptec online store. Maxtor and Adaptec will continue to work together on ongoing compatibility testing of current and next-generation products.

About Adaptec
Adaptec, Inc. provides trusted storage solutions that reliably move, manage, and protect critical data and digital content. Adaptec's software and hardware-based solutions are delivered through leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and channel partners to provide storage connectivity, data protection, and networked storage to enterprises, government organizations, medium and small businesses, and consumers worldwide. Adaptec is an S&P Small Cap 600 Index member. More information is available at www.adaptec.com.

About Maxtor Corporation
Maxtor Corporation (www.maxtor.com) is one of the world's leading suppliers of information storage solutions. The company has an expansive line of storage products for desktop computers, near-line storage, high-performance Intel-based servers and consumer electronics. Maxtor has a reputation as a proven market leader built by consistently providing high-quality products, and service and support for its customers. Maxtor and its products can be found at www.maxtor.com or by calling toll-free (800) 2-MAXTOR. Maxtor is traded on the NYSE under the MXO symbol.