Level 5 Networks: EtherFabric

Solarflare Communications and Level 5 Networks Sign Definitive Agreement to Merge, Raise New Funding

Level 5 Networks delivers a 50% increase in the performance of Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager (ZXTM) and Zeus Web Server (ZWS)

Level 5 Networks Teams with Verari Systems to Accelerate Financial Services Applications

Level 5 Networks Broadens its Message Passing Interface Support
By Adding Support for HP-MPI

Level 5 Networks to Accelerate High Performance Computing with Sun Microsystems

Level 5 Networks Works with Cisco to Offer Ethernet Interconnect Option for High Performance Computing Clusters

Level 5 Networks Speeds Advancements in Computational Fluid Dynamics

University of Nottingham School of Pharmacy Deploys Level 5 Networks EtherFabric to Accelerate Biophysics Research

Level 5 Demonstrates 900% Performance Gain of High-Performance-Computing on Wall Street

Level 5 Networks to Discuss Future of High Performance Ethernet Networking at NetEvents 2005

Foundry and Level 5 Networks Partner to Deliver Next Generation High-Performance Computing Solutions

Level 5 Networks Raises $30 Million in Series B Funding from Top-Tier Investors

Level 5 Networks Unveils the First High Performance Networking Solution, Fully Compatible with Existing Data Centers: Ethernet-based Server Infrastructures, applications, OS and Servers

Solarflare Communications and Level 5 Networks Sign Definitive Agreement to Merge, Raise New Funding

Merger accelerates delivery of cost-effective, high-performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet

IRVINE, Calif. – April 19, 2006 – Solarflare Communications and Level 5 Networks, two leading early stage Ethernet companies, announced today that they have signed a definitive agreement to merge and raise new funding, increasing the cash balance of the new company to over $50 M. The merger was driven by the common vision shared by the two companies to deliver high-performance, cost-effective, standards-based Ethernet products that enable one network for compute, storage, and network traffic.

The merged company will be called Solarflare Communications and will retain its headquarters in Irvine, Calif., with development centers in Sunnyvale, Calif. and Cambridge, UK. Russell Stern, Solarflare President and CEO, will head the combined company. Stern is enthusiastic and said, “I’m extremely excited about the merger on several fronts. First, our combined products are highly compelling and satisfy end users’ needs for easy-to-use, standards-based, high-performance Ethernet solutions. Second, this merger combines two highly distinguished and talented teams of engineers with proven track records in physical layer devices, network systems, and protocol software. And finally, we have a proven executive team that can meet the stringent quality and delivery requirements of our OEM and channel customers.”

Through this merger, 10 Gigabit (Gb) Ethernet will deliver on its promise to be one ubiquitous network as witnessed by Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet: “Ethernet has proliferated and evolved amazingly over the last 33 years, with a quarter billion new Ethernet switch ports shipped worldwide in 2005 according to IDC. Ethernet has evolved from local area network (LAN), to wireless (WiFi), to wide area network (WAN), and most recently to metro Ethernet services. To meet growing demand for speed, Ethernet has gone from 10 Megabit per second (Mbps) to 100 Mbps to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps), and is now moving inexorably up to 10 Gbps, on its way in future years to 100 Gbps.”

In regard to the merger, Metcalfe commented, “Level 5 Networks and Solarflare Communications have been committed to the Ethernet model of standards, performance, and fierce interoperable competition. Combining these two companies will help their data center and enterprise customers to build converged, high-performance networks for storage, network, and compute traffic easily and cost-effectively.”

Solarflare is the leading developer of 10GBASE-T chips which enable simple, relatively inexpensive 10 Gb interconnects that leverage the installed base of twisted-pair copper cabling and Ethernet switching infrastructure. Level 5’s innovative, high-performance 1 Gb/10 Gb Ethernet controller technology is consistent with the Ethernet paradigm. By the simple installation of its accelerated Ethernet controllers, server system performance is increased with no need either to change existing applications or to deploy new protocols.

Mike Bennett, Senior Network Engineer, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, California, stated, “The synergies of the technologies behind this merger are self-evident. Both the10GBASE-T and the high-performance controller technology are plug-and-play Ethernet. A 10GBASE-T NIC with the accelerated Ethernet technology represents a significant improvement over non-Ethernet solutions because there will be no need to engineer the link or install new infrastructure. It just works.”

Top tier venture capitalists supported this merger and invested in the new company. These include Oak Investment Partners, Foundation Capital, Accel Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners, Anthem Venture Partners, IDG Ventures Europe, and Miramar Venture Partners. Bandel Carano, Managing Partner at Oak, commented, “This merger and the significant level of funding give Solarflare the critical mass and resources necessary to deliver solutions that will accelerate 10 Gigabit (Gb) Ethernet adoption in data center and enterprise networks. This combination removes any doubt that high-performance, high-volume, low-cost 10 Gb Ethernet products are imminent. Solarflare Communications will have a profound effect on the networking industry in building a true 10 Gb Ethernet company.”

About Solarflare Communications, Inc.

Solarflare Communications Inc. is a privately held fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Irvine, California. Founded in 2001 by PairGain engineers George Zimmerman and Ben Charny, the company is developing high-performance, mixed-signal semiconductor solutions for 10G Ethernet network connectivity. Solarflare’s communications architectures and advanced signal processing algorithms enable higher data rates, lower costs, and greater distances than traditional transmission techniques. The company’s solutions will enable data center and enterprise network customers to migrate to next-generation speeds without replacing their physical infrastructure. For more information, visit http://www.solarflare.com.

About Level 5 Networks

Level 5 Networks Inc. based in Cambridge, UK and Sunnyvale, California, is a fabless semiconductor company developing high-speed server interconnection products that accelerate the speed of networking while remaining completely compatible with Ethernet. Level 5 was founded in 2002 by engineers from AT&T Labs, Cambridge, U.K. and the Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge: Steve Pope, Derek Roberts, David Riddoch, and David Clarke under the auspices of Professor Andy Hopper. Using industry standard protocols, Level 5’s high-performance Ethernet controllers are fully compatible with existing applications and networking equipment. Through a simple upgrade to the server, the Level 5 solution accelerates application performance, thereby reducing time to market and lowering the total cost of ownership of the IT infrastructure. For more information, visit http://www.level5networks.com.

Solarflare Communications will be the name of the combined entity, headquartered in Irvine, California with development centers in Cambridge, UK and Sunnyvale, California. Solarflare’s mission is to be the leading Ethernet company by focusing on cost-effective, high-performance, standards-based Ethernet interconnects for data centers and enterprise networking.

For more information, visit http://www.solarflare.com.

Solarflare Communications Fact Sheet (pdf)

Executive and Board Bios (pdf)

Press Contact:
Sacha Arts
Slider & Associates
408-356-3099
sacha@sliderassociates.com

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Level 5 Networks delivers a 50% increase in the performance of Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager (ZXTM) and Zeus Web Server (ZWS)

SUNNYVALE, CA – March 29, 2006 – Level 5 Networks, the leading provider of high performance Ethernet network interface cards announces that Broadband-Testing has validated the performance of its EtherFabric™ EF1-21022T Ethernet NIC. This independent test demonstrated a huge performance benefit at little incremental cost and with very little disturbance to the existing Data Center infrastructure.

Broadband-Testing was given the EtherFabric™ EF1-21022T Ethernet NIC from Level 5 Networks to test using standard servers and software – in this instance, the ZWS Web Server and ZXTM Load Balancer from Zeus ™. Broadband-Testing found that the Level 5 solution was completely transparent to these Data Centre applications, and was quickly up and running showing huge gains in performance, when measured using the industry standard Avalanche test equipment from Spirent.

With EtherFabric, Level 5 has shown that is possible to achieve significant performance gains using totally Ethernet compliant technology and at a price that literally every company can afford.

[Steve Broadhead, Founder & Director, Broadband-Testing Labs.]

The testing also demonstrated the robustness of the Level 5 solution. Under extreme overload conditions the servers equipped with Level 5 sustained high-performance well past the point where the regular server solution had collapsed.

With ZXTM and ZWS, Zeus has broken the mould of network appliances by providing software to accelerate and secure application traffic, which can be easily installed on any hardware of users choosing. It was a pleasant surprise to find that a low cost Level 5 network adapter could so dramatically increase performance, which we believe validates our stance of running on commodity hardware. Truly 'optimising the optimiser'.

[Steve Palmer, VP of Marketing, Zeus Technology]

This combination of ultra-high performance, full standards based application compatibility, and resistance to sustained overload conditions makes the EtherFabric™ EF1-21022T Ethernet NIC the perfect choice for the most demanding of Data Center applications.

The full test report can be obtained from:
http://www.broadband-testing.co.uk/BBT_download_form.htm

Accelerating Network Computing

Level 5 Networks has taken a more innovative approach to solving the I/O bottleneck. Until now, interconnects have been expensive, required significant expertise to implement, and could not scale easily to the high port densities needed today. Because EtherFabric is standards based, it dramatically accelerates application performance without changing the existing IT infrastructure, giving customers significant gains in application performance without requiring changes to the network or the applications.

Companies that choose the Gigabit Ethernet based technology from Level 5 Networks benefit from:

Low-risk solutions that are standards compliant and completely compatible with existing network equipment and application software
Taking advantage of existing Ethernet networking expertise and management tools
Accelerating the performance of the applications running within their Data Center environment without drastic changes to the servers, applications or to the network

About Level 5 Networks

Level 5 Networks is a leading innovator of high-performance Ethernet network interface cards (NICs). The company’s EtherFabric solution accelerates application performance and liberates server compute power which combines to elevate business productivity by optimizing the existing IT infrastructure. Using industry standard protocols, the Level 5 Networks high performance Ethernet NIC is fully compatible with existing applications and networking equipment. Through a simple upgrade to the server, Level 5 Networks accelerates application performance, reducing time to market and lowering the total cost of ownership of the IT infrastructure. To learn why many of the industry’s leading companies are adopting Level 5 Networks’ technology please visit www.level5networks.com.

About Zeus

Zeus Technology is leading innovation in application traffic management software. With over ten years' industry experience, the company has developed award-winning solutions that enable organizations to intelligently manage their applications, streamline operations and provide a seamless end-user experience.
Web-enabled businesses rely on Zeus infrastructure products for reliability, scalability and security. Reshaping the market by taking an intelligent approach to application traffic management, Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager (ZXTM) integrates the three essential business requirements of traffic management, optimization and security in a single robust and scalable solution. This provides centralized control and resilience for applications, and ensures swift and seamless interaction between web-enabled application services.

Zeus holds strategic partnerships with world-class companies such as HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Clarity Group and Redbus Interhouse, OpenPSL and jetNEXUS. Zeus customers include BT, Cable & Wireless, Document Systems Inc., eBay, Hotel.de, NEC BIGLOBE, Newport City Council, NOB Cross-Media Facilities, PLAY.COM, Federal Railroads Administration, The Institute of Financial Services, Virgin Holidays, The Planet, TD Waterhouse, Telewest, Verisign and We Energies.

For more information visit www.zeus.com.

About Broadband-Testing

Broadband-Testing is Europe's foremost independent network testing facility and consultancy organization for broadband and network infrastructure products.
Based in the south of France, Broadband-Testing offers extensive labs, demo and conference facilities. From this base, Broadband-Testing provides a range of specialist IT, networking and development services to vendors and end-user organizations throughout Europe, SEAP and the United States.

Broadband-Testing is an associate of the following:
· NSS Network Testing Laboratories (specializing in security product testing)
· Broadband Vantage (broadband consultancy group)
· Limbo Creatives (bespoke software development)

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© Level 5 Networks [2006]. Level 5 Networks, the Level5 logo and EtherFabric are trademarks of Level 5 Networks Inc.
© Zeus Technology [2005]. Zeus Technology, the Zeus logo, Zeus Web Server, Zeus Load Balancer, Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager, are trademarks of Zeus Technology Limited.
© Broadband-Testing 2001-2006 Broadband-Testing All rights reserved.
Other trademarks may be owned by third parties.

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
840 W. California Ave
Suite 240
Sunnyvale, CA 94086

408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

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Level 5 Networks Teams with Verari Systems to Accelerate Financial Services Applications

Joint demonstration at Interop NY showcases 4x faster transaction rate

NEW YORK – December 12, 2005 – Level 5 Networks, the leading provider of high performance Ethernet network interface cards and Verari Systems, the premier developer of powerful, platform-independent blade server systems, announced today that they are partnering to accelerate application performance on blade server clusters. The two companies will conduct a demonstration showing four times more transactional throughput than is possible with conventional Ethernet network interfaces in blade servers. Level 5 Networks and Verari Systems will unveil the innovative solution at Interop NY in booth #242 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, December 13-15, 2005.

The financial services industry is on the leading edge of computing and is actively deploying cluster technology similar to what is being used in High Performance Computing (HPC). To sustain a competitive advantage in the market, companies must be able to access, process and act on information faster than their competitors. Building productive high performance computing data centers using the “scaled-out” model of connecting cost effective servers together over a network boosts the performance of many applications and delivers the best price/performance. This model requires a high performance network to connect the servers in order to maximize the productivity of all the servers in the cluster. The combined power of Level 5 Networks EtherFabric Ethernet accelerator and the Verari Systems blades speed applications exponentially and provide customers with unbeatable price/performance.

“Wall Street financial institutions have been looking for network technology which significantly enhances application performance on server clusters,” said Dan Karr, President and CEO of Level 5 Networks. “Level 5 Networks accelerates application performance while maintaining full compatibility with the existing Ethernet and IP network infrastructure. Preserving compatibility with existing applications, networks and operating systems allows companies to take advantage of the increased performance our product provides through a simple upgrade to the NIC in the server.”

Accelerating Network Computing

The Level 5 Networks solution is an accelerated version of Ethernet that speeds transaction rates and computational throughput without expensive new hardware and complex software changes. Other non-standard high performance networking solutions, by contrast, require both hardware and software changes. By eliminating the server I/O bottleneck and liberating server compute power from inefficient I/O processing, Level 5 Networks elevates business productivity by enhancing data center performance. By optimizing the existing IT infrastructure, customers maximize the investment in the price/performance leading Verari Systems servers that support the transaction-intensive demands of financial services. The combined solution lets financial services firms conduct their research more efficiently and accelerates buy and sell transactions providing them with a competitive advantage:

Accelerating the performance of existing financial applications enables financial analysts to reduce the time required to conduct research and create models and forecasts that have never before been possible
High transaction rates provide competitive advantage in fast-moving global financial markets
Full compatibility with proven IT standards removes the implementation risk, allowing simple integration into existing IT operations
The combined Level 5 Networks and Verari Systems solution elevates business productivity by optimizing the investment in IT infrastructure and lowering the total cost of data center ownership

“The combination of high performance servers and the latest Ethernet networking technology provides the financial services and other industries with the ultimate high performance Ethernet-based server solution,” said David Driggers, CEO of Verari Systems. “This announcement reaffirms Verari Systems’ commitment to bringing groundbreaking technology to the market, to give our customers an edge on their competition.”

About Level 5 Networks

Level 5 Networks is a leading innovator of high-performance Ethernet network interface cards (NICs). The company’s EtherFabric solution accelerates application performance, and liberates server compute power which combine to elevate business productivity by optimizing the existing IT infrastructure. Using industry standard protocols, the Level 5 Networks high performance Ethernet NIC is fully compatible with existing applications and networking equipment. Through a simple upgrade to the server, Level 5 Networks accelerates application performance, reducing time to market and lowering the total cost of ownership of the IT infrastructure. To learn why many of the industry’s leading companies are adopting Level 5 Networks’ technology please visit www.level5networks.com.

About Verari Systems

Verari Systems, Inc. is the premier developer of powerful, flexible, and scalable platform-independent blade computing systems that are defining a new era in high performance utility computing for the enterprise data center. Enterprises such as Akamai, ConocoPhillips, Lockheed Martin, Lucasfilm, Ltd., Northrup Grumman, Qualcomm, Sony Imageworks, Veritas DGC and Walt Disney Feature Animation, as well as top universities and research institutions worldwide, are among the 4000+ customers who have chosen Verari Systems' line of high density blade server clusters, rack-optimized servers and award-winning software solutions. To learn more about Verari Systems and its unique solutions, please visit www.verari.com or call (888) 942-3800.

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Verari Systems is a trademark or registered trademark of Verari Systems, Inc. Other product and company names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

Mike LaPan
Verari Systems
mike.lapan@verari.com

Level 5 Networks Broadens its Message Passing Interface Support
By Adding Support for HP-MPI

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Nov. 17, 2005 – Level 5 Networks, a leading developer of high-speed server interconnect, today announced that it has completed the testing of its high performance Ethernet-based EtherFabric interconnect required to become a supported interconnect for HP-MPI (Message-Passing Interface) v2.2. The joint testing by the two companies established interoperability with HP-MPI, which is expected to deliver accelerated application performance using the combined EtherFabric and HP-MPI. Level 5 Networks interconnect solution is expected to be available to High Performance Computing (HPC) users early next year in HP-MPI v2.2.

The popularity and increasing usage of HPCC (high performance computing clusters) and grids, when teamed with Level 5 Networks EtherFabric, creates the fastest standards-based 1 Gb interconnect solution on the market today. EtherFabric already has broad based support among various MPI implementations, so ISVs (independent software vendors) can rely on Level 5 to comply with the demands for speed and reliability of their networked applications.

“The speed of innovation and demands on performance by today’s advanced computing customer keeps us looking for new ways to meet the needs of the HPC market,” said Craig Easley, director of product marketing at Level 5 Networks. “Level 5 Networks provides a standards complaint 1 Gb interconnect solution that meets the performance requirements of the HPC marketplace.”

The completion of the interoperability testing clears the way for HP-MPI customers to soon access the Level 5 Networks high performance EtherFabric interconnect to increase application performance using standard Ethernet implementations.

“Our customers are always on the lookout for standards-based, optimized, low latency Ethernet switching for their high performance computing clusters,” said Ed Turkel, manager of product and technology marketing for HP’s High Performance Computing Division. “Using Level 5 Networks EtherFabric technology with the HP-MPI delivers outstanding performance for a 1 Gb Ethernet cluster.”

About Level 5 Networks

Level 5 Networks is a leading innovator of high-performance Ethernet network interface cards (NICs). Their EtherFabric solution accelerates application performance, and liberates server compute power which combine to elevate business productivity by optimizing the existing IT infrastructure. Using industry standard protocols, Level 5 Networks’ high performance Ethernet NIC is fully compatible with existing applications and networking equipment. Through a simple upgrade to the server, Level 5 Networks accelerates application performance, reducing time to market and lowering the total cost of ownership of the IT infrastructure. To learn why many of the industry’s leading companies are adopting Level 5 Networks’ technology please visit www.level5networks.com

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

Level 5 Networks to Accelerate High Performance Computing with Sun Microsystems

High Speed EtherFabric Available Directly to its Customers

SUNNYVALE, Calif. and SANTA CLARA, Calif.,− November 14, 2005 − Level 5 Networks, a leading developer of high-speed Ethernet server interconnect solutions, today announced that Sun Microsystems will make Level 5 Networks EtherFabric cards available to their customers through their Customer Ready Systems (CRS) program. Level 5 Networks also announced support for the Sun Solaris™ 10 Operating System (OS) and is demonstrating EtherFabric for the Solaris OS running on an x86 platform at the SCO5 trade show, in booth #2213. Level 5 Networks previewed their high performance Ethernet-base solution to Sun customers at the recent Sun HPC Consortium. Now, Sun customers can immediately increase the performance of their Sun servers and accelerate the applications running on them without the risk of implementing non-standard niche interconnect solutions.

“Sun and Level 5 Networks share a common commitment to deliver high performance network computing solutions that reduce cost and complexity for our customers,” said Bjorn Andersson, director, HPC and Grid Computing, Sun Microsystems, Inc. “Coupled with Sun's high performance servers, Level 5 Networks EtherFabric cards can deliver significant performance gains while preserving our customers’ investment in Ethernet infrastructure.”

The decision to make EtherFabric available directly via Sun’s Customer Ready Systems program addresses the market need and subsequent growth of high performance computing. HPC clusters process large amounts of data and consume server resources to solve complex, numerically intensive problems. Traditionally the domain of engineers, physicists, astronomers and other scientists solving grand challenge problems, recent trends in technology and in the enterprise are increasing the scope of application of HPC tremendously. By supporting EtherFabric in the Sun-based HPC clusters, Sun customers are better able to utilize their existing computer resources, resulting in increased productivity and improved return on their investment in IT infrastructure.

“Level 5 is driving the future of HPC by delivering dramatic application performance while maintaining full compatibility with existing IT infrastructures,” said Dan Karr, chief executive officer of Level 5 Networks. “This initiative with Sun Microsystems makes our EtherFabric solution available to Sun users and immediately brings the full potential of high performance computing to Sun data centers.”

EtherFabric accelerates the performance of networked applications on HPC clusters using standard Ethernet and TCP/IP networking protocols. The standards-based EtherFabric solution is compatible with existing applications and increases application performance and computational throughput without expensive new hardware and risky software changes. Other non-standard high performance networking solutions, by contrast, require changes to both hardware and software. EtherFabric enhances data center performance and lets Sun customers optimize their existing IT infrastructure to maximize the investment in their high-performance servers that support the computing-intensive demands in industries such as life sciences, automotive, financial services and others.

Advantages of deploying Sun servers with EtherFabric:

Enables applications to fully leverage multi-CPU/core Sun servers
Accelerates the performance and improves efficiency of applications running on Sun Server clusters and storage systems
Increases productivity and cuts time to market
Provides a total solution to full comply with industry standards; is a simple upgrade to existing IT operations
Optimizes investments in Sun infrastructure, lowers the total cost of ownership and improves capital lifecycle

“This agreement is a great opportunity for Level 5 Networks,” said Anne MacFarland, director of infrastructure architectures and solutions at The Clipper Group, a New England-based IT analysis firm. “Level 5 Networks offers a way to use existing Ethernet connectivity, but alleviates the high CPU loading that can constrain the performance of many traditional Ethernet systems. Level 5 brings more performance to compute-intensive applications, and more scalability to the server clusters on which such applications run.”

About Level 5 Networks

Sun, Sun Microsystems and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

Level 5 Networks Works with Cisco to Offer Ethernet Interconnect Option for High Performance Computing Clusters

Tests Validate Accelerated Application Performance on HPC Clusters Using Level 5 Networks High Performance Ethernet Interconnect with Cisco Gigabit Ethernet Switches

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Nov. 14, 2005 – Level 5 Networks, a leading developer of high-speed server interconnect solutions, today announced that it has completed testing of a solution that accelerates applications running on high-performance computing (HPC) clusters using Cisco Gigabit Ethernet switches and Level 5 Networks Ethernet interconnect products.

The tests confirmed that Level 5 Networks Ethernet interconnect cards met interoperability criteria with Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches, the company’s flagship LAN switching platform. The two companies will demonstrate the performance of the combined solution at the Super Computing 2005 (SC05) show in Seattle, Washington from November 14 through 17 in Level 5 Networks booth, #2213.

Additionally, Cisco will be showcasing Level 5 Networks high-performance Ethernet interconnect technology available in its High Performance Computing Lab at its corporate headquarters in San Jose to demonstrate the accelerated application performance speed available when Cisco and Level 5 combine forces in an HPC. The demo will be running an approximate 100-node HPC cluster, and customers will be able to see the immediate performance gains when applications run on the combined power of EtherFabric interface cards and Cisco switches.

“Our customers are demanding low latency Ethernet switching for their data centers and High Performance Cluster environments,” said Walt Blomquist, director of product management in the Internet Systems Business Unit at Cisco. “Combining Level 5 Networks EtherFabric technology as the server’s network interface with a Cisco switched Ethernet infrastructure furthers our commitment to providing customers with intelligent networking solutions. This helps our customer to run their HPC applications significantly faster than is possible with conventional Ethernet interconnects.”

Demand for high-performance computing environments is rising dramatically. Clusters provide a scalable, modular computing environment that can easily be upgraded as server technologies improve while increasing the overall availability of the computing infrastructure. As HPC systems move to a clustered environment, the need grows for high-bandwidth, low-latency server interconnections. Until now, interconnects have been expensive, required significant expertise to implement, and could not scale easily to the high port densities needed today. Because EtherFabric is standards based, it dramatically accelerates application performance without changing the existing IT infrastructure, giving customers significant gains in application performance without requiring changes to the network or the applications.

Companies that choose the Ethernet HPC interconnect based on technology from Level 5 Networks and Cisco Systems benefit from:

Combined state of the art Ethernet switching and server technologies that dramatically accelerates applications on HPC clusters
Low-risk solutions that are standards compliant and completely compatible with existing network equipment and application software
Taking advantage of existing Ethernet networking expertise and management tools
Accelerating the performance of the applications running within their HPC environment without drastic changes to the servers, applications or to the network

“Level 5 Networks has started a movement to accelerate application performance, liberate server compute power and elevate business productivity by optimizing IT infrastructure,” said Dan Karr, chief executive officer of Level 5 Networks. “The combined power of our high performance Ethernet interconnects and Cisco Ethernet switches makes our vision a reality for HPC customers, and we look forward to expanding our work with Cisco to continue bringing best-in-class solutions to the market.”

About Level 5 Networks

Level 5 Networks is a leading innovator of high-performance Ethernet network interface cards (NICs). Its EtherFabric solution accelerates application performance, and liberates server compute power which combine to elevate business productivity by optimizing the existing IT infrastructure. Using industry standard protocols, the Level 5 Networks high performance Ethernet NIC is fully compatible with existing applications and networking equipment. Through a simple upgrade to the server, Level 5 Networks accelerates application performance, reducing time to market and lowering the total cost of ownership of the IT infrastructure. To learn why many of the industry’s leading companies are adopting Level 5 Networks technology please visit www.level5networks.com.

Cisco, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

Level 5 Networks Speeds Advancements in Computational Fluid Dynamics

FLUENT Inc., Leading Provider of CFD Software, to Showcase Level 5 Networks EtherFabric High Performance Interconnect Solution

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Nov. 14, 2005 – Level 5 Networks, a leading developer of high-performance Ethernet network interface cards, today announced that in tests done by Level 5 Networks its EtherFabric product was shown to accelerate FLUENT application performance by as much as 150 percent. The Level 5 Networks interconnect product has been benchmarked on the FLUENT computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software from Fluent, Inc., the worlds largest provider of CFD software and consulting services. The combined solution will help engineers in industries such as automotive, aerospace, power generation and biomedical shorten design cycles while reducing the number of IT resources needed to run the computations.

The broad physical modeling capabilities of FLUENT are applied to industrial applications ranging from air flow over an aircraft wing to combustion in a furnace, from bubble columns to glass production, from blood flow to semiconductor manufacturing, from clean room design to wastewater treatment plants.Level 5 helps all these calculations run faster, so that the end results can be obtained sooner, resulting in faster time to product creation and faster time to revenue.

“As the global leader in CFD software, Fluent works hard to provide software that is tuned to the latest HPC technologies,” said Barbara Hutchings, director of strategic partnerships at Fluent. “Our customers are looking for every possible edge in time to market and cluster performance is critical. Level 5 Networks EtherFabric is a great solution, with demonstrated superior performance and minimal latency. By implementing EtherFabric, our customers may see their CFD calculations run in half the time they would normally run over Ethernet.”

Tests conducted by Level 5 Networks have shown significant performance gains over conventional Gigabit Ethernet when running the FLUENT CFD application over Level 5 Networks EtherFabric. In the case of the FLUENT benchmark “FL5L3”, performance doubled. The performance advantage continued to increase as the cluster size was increased, with the advantage limited only by the size of the cluster. To view detailed testing results, please visit www.level5networks.com.

“It's exciting to collaborate with industry leaders like Fluent to produce best-of-class solutions that accelerate innovation,” said Dan Karr, chief executive officer of Level 5 Networks. “The combined power of Level 5 Networks EtherFabric and Fluent's CFD software gives customers the advantage they need to bring products to market faster and more cost effectively.”

The EtherFabric Advantage

As an example of the real world advancements that Level 5 Networks and Fluent are bringing to bear, consider the automotive industry. Automobile companies used to take many years to take new a car from concept to the showroom and at least a year more before significant revenue could be derived from it. To stay ahead of competition, manufacturers are now trying to bring that down to one year. In order to achieve this ambitious objective, the automotive industry needs millions of hours of computing time required to simulate crash analysis and fluid behavior. Using Level 5 Networks EtherFabric interconnect solution and Fluent software, automotive manufacturers are seeing a significant increase in the speed of crash analysis and reducing the time required for fluid dynamics simulation.

In brief, EtherFabric provides the following advantages:

Reduces application-to-application latency across the network
Increases the usable network bandwidth that is available to applications
Relieves network processing load on the server, resulting in more CPU power for applications

About Level 5 Networks

About Fluent, Inc.

Fluent is the world's largest provider of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and consulting services. Fluent's software is used for simulation, visualization, and analysis of fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, flow-induced noise and chemical reactions. It is a vital part of the computer-aided engineering (CAE) process for companies around the world and is deployed in nearly every manufacturing industry. FLUENT is used extensively in the automotive industry worldwide by the vast majority of OEM's and their suppliers and in the Motor Racing industry worldwide by the vast majority of race teams. Using Fluent's software, engineers build virtual prototypes and simulate the performance of proposed and existing designs, allowing them to improve design quality while reducing cost and speeding time to market. Fluent's corporate headquarters are located in Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA, with offices in Belgium, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, China and Sweden. Its CFD software is also available around the world through joint ventures, partnerships, and distributors in Korea, Australia, Brazil, China, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Middle East, and most European countries. For more information: www.fluent.com.

FLUENT® is registered trademark of Fluent Inc.

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

University of Nottingham School of Pharmacy Deploys Level 5 Networks EtherFabric to Accelerate Biophysics Research

Triples the Speed of Applications in the Lab's High Performance Computing Center, Dramatically Improves Time-to-Market and Return-on-Investment

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Sept. 27, 2005-- Level 5 Networks, a leading developer of high-speed server interconnect solutions, announced today that University of Nottingham School of Pharmacy has deployed Level 5 Networks' EtherFabric to eliminate the interconnect processing bottleneck in its high-performance computing (HPC) cluster used to conduct biophysics research. After simply replacing eight out of 16 existing Ethernet cards -- without any other hardware or software changes -- the researchers experienced a 300 percent increase in performance. Such performance enhancements significantly speed time to market in clinical trials, getting medicines out to the masses that need them sooner, and can also reduce a project's overhead and operational costs.

The research work conducted by the Laboratory of Biophysics and Surface Analysis (LBSA) at Nottingham University involves the "folding" nature of proteins and has the potential to lead to important discoveries in the areas of diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and other ailments. The research is conducted on a 16-node satellite clone of a larger computing cluster comprising 512 Sun V20z nodes, each with two AMD Opteron 248 CPUs, running SUSE Professional Linux 9.0. The research cluster runs standard versions of molecular engineering and simulation applications including AMBER, CHARMM and Moil. Prior to deploying EtherFabric, all the nodes were connected using motherboard gigabit interconnects. As the number of parallel processes increased, however, CPU performance degraded, seriously slowing down research.

"We buy computers to do calculations, not to run networks, but with standard Ethernet, our CPUs simply choked on the high transaction rate and the massive amount of data our research involved," said Dr. Phil Williams, an Advanced Research Fellow in Theoretical Biophysics at the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham. "The beauty of EtherFabric is that we were able to install it by simply replacing a card and installing a driver. No new cables. No changes to applications. No problems. And after upgrading only eight of our 16 nodes with EtherFabric, we saw an immediate 300 percent increase in performance, leading to some stunning benefits."

The benefits include enabling the University to do three times the work using the same resources. And this time is precious. With typical pharmaceutical drugs, each day saved in development is worth over $1 million in costs. With three times the performance, the University's running costs for each job (electricity, air conditioning, and maintenance) have been reduced significantly, providing both financial and environmental benefits. In a shared computing environment using multiple-CPU nodes, where multiple researchers rely on the same resources, removing the system overhead for networking from the CPU reduces the impact of one job on another.

"Whether the goal is greater throughput for high-performance computing applications or increased speed for data center operations, IT managers need to hit their targets without the high cost and risk of ripping out their infrastructure, recompiling their applications or updating their operating system," said Dan Karr, President and CEO of Level 5 Networks. "EtherFabric is the only solution that is fully system compatible, which means that any networked computing environment can easily and cost-effectively achieve significant performance gains."

About LBSA

The Laboratory of Biophysics and Surface Analysis (LBSA) in the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, investigates fundamental and applied biomolecular and material problems of relevance to pharmaceutical and healthcare research. This involves cutting-edge multidisciplinary science at the interface of biology, chemistry, pharmaceutics, materials science and physics. Project themes include molecular structure and interactions, biomaterials, nanoscale formulation studies, biomolecular and biopolymer patterning, and computational modeling. For more information, please visit http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~pazxc/.

About Level 5 Networks

Level 5 Networks helps Fortune 2000 companies maximize the return on their investment in data center hardware and software by enabling servers to respond more quickly to client requests and to get more processing done in less time. The company's EtherFabric is the only interconnect solution that provides high performance and complete compatibility with existing data center software and hardware infrastructure. Level 5 Networks' founding team members are world-class researchers in high-performance networking who built the world's fastest LAN in 2000. For more information, please visit www.level5networks.com.

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

Level 5 Demonstrates 900% Performance Gain of High-Performance-Computing on Wall Street

Leveraging Existing Standards Allows Financial Services Companies to Immediately Increase Profitability by Implementing EtherFabric Solution

High Performance on Wall Street Conference NEW YORK--Sept. 26, 2005-- Level 5 Networks announced today that it will be demonstrating the high performance capabilities of its EtherFabric Network Interface Card (NIC) at the High-Performance on Wall Street Conference in New York City. EtherFabric accelerates application performance by delivering over 10 times (900%) the performance of traditional Ethernet server interfaces while remaining fully compatible with existing applications and Ethernet networks. The innovative solution from Level 5 Networks has broad applicability in the financial services industry. EtherFabric lets financial analysts develop models and forecasts that have never before been possible, and dramatically increases the transaction rates of trading applications, giving financial services companies a significant competitive edge.

"Wall Street financial institutions have been on a quest for network technology which significantly enhances application performance," said Dan Karr, President and CEO of Level 5 Networks. "Level 5 Networks' EtherFabric delivers dramatic application performance enhancement while maintaining full compatibility with the existing IT infrastructure. Compatibility with existing applications, networks and operating systems of our EtherFabric solution allows companies to take advantage of the increased performance our product provides through a simple upgrade."

EtherFabric Price-Performance Leadership
EtherFabric is an accelerated version of the existing Ethernet standard that increases transaction rates and computational throughput without expensive new hardware and risky software changes. Other non-standard high performance networking solutions, by contrast, require both hardware and software. By eliminating the server I/O bottleneck and delivering up to a tenfold increase in performance, EtherFabric enhances data center performance and lets companies optimize their existing IT infrastructure to maximize the investment in their high-performance servers that support the transaction-intensive demands of financial services. With EtherFabric, financial services firms can buy, sell, and conduct research more efficiently to maintain their competitive advantage.

-- Accelerating the performance of existing financial applications enables financial analysts to reduce the time required to conduct research and create models and forecasts that have never before been possible

-- High transaction rates provide competitive advantage in fast-moving global financial markets

-- Full compatibility with proven IT standards removes the implementation risk, allowing simple integration into existing IT operations

-- EtherFabric optimizes the investment in IT infrastructure and lowers the total cost of data center ownership

Microseconds Matter: Industry Validation
EtherFabric is gaining widespread industry support for its unbeatable combination of performance gains, compatibility, ease of use, and low cost. The industry has acknowledged that EtherFabric is poised to become a ubiquitous offering because it offers significant performance gains without risk. The Tolly Group, a leading independent research and testing group has conducted a battery of tests on the EtherFabric EF1-21022T dual-port Gigabit Ethernet NIC and issued their "Up to Spec" certification, validating the products' performance and compatibility claims. For a full review of the Level 5 Networks' commissioned report, click on www.tolly.com.

For more information about purchasing EtherFabric, show attendees can visit the Level 5 Networks booth, #322. Or, please contact Level 5 Networks at 408-245-9300 or via email at L5Nsales@level5networks.com.

About Level 5 Networks

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

Level 5 Networks to Discuss Future of High Performance Ethernet Networking at NetEvent 2005

September 26, 2005 – Media Alert –

WHAT: Craig Easley, director of marketing for Level 5 Networks, a leading developer of high-speed server interconnect solutions, will be presenting at NetEvents 2005 in a panel entitled, "High Performance Ethernet Networking: Is it a reality or an oxymoron?" The panel explores how enterprise networking can evolve the performance of Ethernet to provide better performance and scalability without breaking the existing applications or network infrastructure. Craig and other enterprise network leaders will explain how manageability and intelligence can be layered on top of networks. Co-panelists include executives from HP, Intel, Symbol and ConSentry Networks. The panel will be introduced and chaired by Ian Keene, chief analyst and vice president, Gartner Group.

WHY: Enterprise networks want more: more traffic, more users, more storage, more applications. Not only is the network increasingly critical for business competitiveness, but the requirements for the data center connectivity and scalability are becoming more demanding. High performance computing applications are both computing and network intensive. Web services are expanding applications beyond the firewall; management dashboards have to provide a real-time view deep into every layer of the infrastructure. All of this begs the question, how can enterprise networking evolve the performance of Ethernet?

WHERE: "Debate Session IV - Enterprise Focus: High Performance
Ethernet Networking: Is it a reality or an oxymoron?"

Thursday, September 29, 2005
11:35 a.m. - 12:25 p.m.
Grand Hotel Qvisisana, 80073 Capri, Italy

For more information or to request an interview with executives during the event to discuss these trends in more detail, please contact Elyce Ventura at elyce@eastwick.com.

About Level 5 Networks

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

Foundry and Level 5 Networks Partner to Deliver Next Generation High-Performance Computing Solutions

Leaders in Networking Bring Benefits of Ethernet to
High-Performance Computing; Speed Time to Innovation

SAN JOSE, CA, and SUNNYVALE, CA, June 28th, 2005 – Foundry Networks®, Inc. (Nasdaq: FDRY) a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing and Level 5 Networks, a leading developer of high-speed server interconnect solutions,, today announced they have partnered to deliver high-performance computing (HPC) solutions as part of Foundry’s HPC Ethernet Alliance Program. Together, the companies are helping joint customers free up IT resources in order to focus efforts on productivity and innovation.

Foundry’s HPC Ethernet Alliance Program is designed to accelerate deployment of high-performance Gigabit Ethernet and 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) solutions within the HPC community. As part of the program, Foundry will work closely with Level 5 Networks and with other leading next-generation Ethernet adapter, server and application vendors to deliver standards-based, high-performance HPC solutions for network-based, high-speed applications.

As part of the Foundry HPC Ethernet Alliance Program, Foundry and Level 5 Networks will work together in the following areas:

Interoperability testing and benchmarking of Foundry’s Ethernet switches with Level 5 Networks to provide customers with seamless integration and end-to-end performance measurements.
Cooperative marketing to promote the use of EtherFabric on Gigabit Ethernet and 10-GbE links in HPC environments.
Cross training on the benefits of an integrated, solutions-based HPC networking approach.

“EtherFabric provides customers what they have wanted for a long time - a low cost, easy-to-deploy performance boost to their existing environment that won’t require them to rip out or replace wiring, applications or systems,” said Dan Karr, president and CEO of Level 5 Networks. “We are proud to work with Foundry Networks to bring unparalleled speed and reliability to our joint HPC customers, to help speed time to innovation across all industries.”

“Ethernet is becoming the interconnect of choice for a new generation of high-performance networks, from massively parallel processing supercomputers to commodity clusters and grids built with affordable, off-the-shelf components. As a leading provider of high-performance, low-latency network infrastructure to many leading supercomputing sites around the world, Foundry is working with Level 5 Networks to bring the benefits of Ethernet to the high-performance computing community,” said Bob Schiff, vice president of product marketing, Foundry Networks. “With the HPC Ethernet Alliance Program, we are formalizing our longstanding commitment to work with partners to deliver the highest-quality, tested and proven networking solutions to simplify deployments, and ultimately help customers spend less time building and managing their networks and more time on their primary scientific and business mission.

About Level 5 Networks
Level 5 Networks helps Fortune 2000 companies maximize the return on their investment in data center hardware and software by enabling servers to respond more quickly to client requests and to get more processing done in less time. The company’s EtherFabric is the only interconnect solution that provides high performance and complete compatibility with existing data center software and hardware infrastructure. Level 5 Networks’ founding team members are world-class researchers in high-performance networking who built the world’s fastest LAN in 2000. For more information, please visit www.level5networks.com.

About Foundry Networks
Foundry Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: FDRY) is a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing and Web traffic management solutions including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4 - 7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, access routers and Metro routers. Foundry's 8,100 customers include the world's premier ISPs, Metro service providers, and enterprises including e-commerce sites, universities, entertainment, health and wellness, government, financial, and manufacturing companies. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBOLAN or visit http://www.foundrynetworks.com.

Foundry Networks and the “Iron” family of marks are trademarks of Foundry Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective holders.

Level 5 Networks and EtherFabric are registered trademarks of Level 5 Networks. Other names are property of their respective owners.

Foundry Press Contacts:

North America:
Benjamin Taft
Foundry Networks Kaizo
408.586.1722
btaft@foundrynet.com

Europe:
Tom Herbst
Foundry Networks [CITY
+0207.580.8852
tom.herbst@kaizo.net

Asia/Pacific:
Jenny Liu
Foundry Networks Hong Kong
+852.2845.3818
jenny@foundrynet.com

Level5 Press Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

Foundry Investor Contact:
Jason Golz
Financial Dynamics
415.439.4532
jgolz@fd-us.com

_____________________________________________________________________

Level 5 Networks Raises $30 Million in Series B Funding from Top-Tier Investors

Revolutionizes Data Center Productivity with Industry's First Cost
Effective Ethernet-based Solution Designed to Eliminate Server I/O
Bottlenecks

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – June 20, 2005 – Level 5 Networks, a leading developer of high-speed server interconnect solutions, today announced $30 million in series B funding from Oak Investment Partners, Accel Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners and IDG Ventures. Level 5 Networks also announced general availability of the first solution in its product line, EtherFabric™. EtherFabric is a completely Ethernet-compatible, high-performance network solution designed to improve server CPU efficiency by over two times, doubling server performance and enabling enterprises to evolve their data centers without giving up the existing Ethernet compatibility fundamental to controlling costs. To view today’s related product announcement, please visit http://www.level5networks.com/news_press.htm.

Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, fully supports Level 5 Networks’ innovations, stating, “Ethernet has obtained ubiquity by evolving to higher levels of performance while maintaining full backward compatibility. Level 5 Networks has adopted this time-tested approach of maintaining full system compatibility, and has created a solution that delivers great customer benefit. EtherFabric will stall the adoption of non-compatible solutions such as iWarp and InfiniBand.”

“Level 5 Networks’ recent $30 million series B funding round clearly signifies our EtherFabric product line is breakthrough technology with strong interest from top tier customers,” said Dan Karr, President and CEO of Level 5 Networks. “We are actively engaged with the top server OEMs and believe EtherFabric will become mainstream in the data center.”

The Ethernet currently in use was never designed for today’s high-performance environments, and as a result, the interconnects between systems have become one of the most significant limiters of overall data center performance, causing bottlenecks throughout. Other newly proposed networking technologies, such as iWarp and InfiniBand, lack compatibility with the existing network infrastructure, making them too disruptive and costly to implement.

Unlike those solutions, the EtherFabric high-speed server interconnect products from Level 5 Networks maintain software and hardware compatibility with the existing environment while reducing the number of servers required by up to 50 percent. This reduction in capital and operating expense is a direct result of EtherFabric requiring fewer computing resources from the host server CPU to transfer network data, while also enabling the communication between servers to occur more quickly and at higher speeds. This lets servers respond more quickly to client requests and get more processing done in less time.

Targeted at all Fortune 2000 companies, with accentuated utility in data-intensive industries such as bio- IT, gas and oil, financial services, and e-commerce, EtherFabric supports the trends toward data center consolidation, grid computing, utility computing, on-demand computing, and high-performance computing.

About Funding

Level 5 Networks' latest round of funding was led by Oak Investment Partners from its $1.5 billion fund raised in 2004. Level 5 Networks will use the $30 million series B investment to continue development of future generations of high-performance Ethernet solutions and to support the market penetration of Level 5 Networks' products and services.

About Level 5 Networks

Level 5 Networks and EtherFabric are registered trademarks of Level 5 Networks. Other names are property of their respective owners.

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com

_____________________________________________________________________

Level 5 Networks Unveils the First High Performance Networking Solution, Fully Compatible with Existing Data Centers: Ethernet, Applications, OS and Servers

Cost effective EtherFabric solutions are available today in volume quantities

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – June 20, 2005 – Level 5 Networks, a leading developer of high-performance server interconnect solutions, today unveiled EtherFabric, the industry’s first low cost Ethernet-based solution designed to eliminate the server bottleneck problem prevalent in today’s transaction-oriented businesses. EtherFabric™, generally available, offers the low latency and high CPU efficiency required to support the trends toward modularized data centers, also known as data center consolidation – grid, utility, and on-demand computing – as well as offering an excellent solution for high-performance computing markets such as bio-IT and oil and gas. To view the related funding announcement please visit http://www.level5networks.com/news_press.htm.

“EtherFabric provides CIOs what they need most,” said Dan Karr, President and CEO of Level 5 Networks. “They want a low cost, easy-to-deploy performance boost to their existing environment that won’t require them to rip out or replace wiring, applications or systems. With EtherFabric, we provide all that while doubling the server performance, effectively providing a free server with every network adapter.”

This reduction in capital and operating expense is a direct result of EtherFabric requiring fewer computing resources from the host server CPU to transfer network data, while also enabling the communication between servers to occur more quickly and at higher speeds. This lets servers respond more quickly to client requests and get more processing done in less time, in sharp contrast to the high cost and complicated deployment of other technologies.

Data center managers have declined to adopt other technologies, such as InfiniBand or iWarp, to solve the performance and latency issues associated with data-intensive businesses because the cost and time involved in making wholesale changes to their infrastructures, along with the risk of betting on a technology that may never see widespread adoption, far outweigh the benefits.

EtherFabric upgrades every inefficient conventional Ethernet connection – server-to-server, server-to-storage, and server-to-network – with a next-generation low-latency, high-efficiency interconnect, providing dramatic benefits to every area of the data center. Additional features include:

More than 2x CPU processing power – Increases performance for all applications.
Up to 5x reduction in latency – Improves application-to-application inter-server communication with sub-10 µsec (micro-second) latencies between application instances on different servers.
2x increase in bandwidth over conventional 1Gb Ethernet – Provides improved bandwidth-bound application performance with unique port striping capability on a single TCP/IP flow.
100 percent software (binary) compatibility – Requires no new applications, middleware, protocol software or cables and switches, minimizing capital expenditures and disruption to the infrastructure.
Less than half the cost of other competing high performance interconnects –Additional savings realized through reduction in operating and management costs.

To obtain more information about EtherFabric, please visit http://www.level5networks.com/prod_etherfabric.htm.

Availability and Pricing

General availability of EtherFabric begins June 2005. High volume pricing is set at $295 for a 2-port, 1Gb-per-port EtherFabric NIC and EtherFabric software. Low volume quantities start at $495. For more information, visit www.level5networks.com.

About Level 5 Networks

Level 5 Networks helps Fortune 2000 companies maximize the return on their investment in data center hardware and software by enabling servers to respond more quickly to client requests and to get more processing done in less time. The company’s EtherFabric is the only interconnect solution that provides high performance and complete compatibility with existing data center hardware and software infrastructure at less than half the cost of other high performance solutions. Level 5 Networks founding team members are world-class researchers in high-performance networking who built the world’s fastest LAN in 2000. Level 5 has received a total of $39 million in funding from Accel Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners, Oak Investment Partners, and IDG Ventures.

Level 5 Networks and EtherFabric are registered trademarks of Level 5 Networks. Other names are property of their respective owners.

Contact:
Marketing
Level 5 Networks
408-245-9300
L5Ninfo@level5networks.com