Japanese

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1998-0131

Fujitsu's Synfinity Interconnect Technology Greatly Improves Server Scalability

- GRANPOWER5000/teamserver Will Incorporate Synfinity Later This Year -

Tokyo, June 25, 1998 --- Fujitsu and FJST (Fujitsu System Technologies, a business unit of HAL Computer Systems, Inc.,)developes a new interconnect technology called Synfinity that achieves the world's fastest transmission speed of 1.6 gigabytes per second. To provide improved scalability, Fujitsu plans to incorporate this technology in its IA(Intel Architecture) server GRANPOWER5000/teamserver later this year.

Fujitsu also plans to start OEM supply of Synfinity to make the technology widely available.

Synfinity achieves 1.6 gigabytes per second Data transfer, this performance is achieved by utilizing the technologies
- - that enable data transfer at the high frequency of 400 MHz,
- - that absorb data that is scattered in transmission,
- - and that switch data to signals at a high speed.

Demand for improved scalability has increased as more and more IA servers and SPARC servers are used for mission critical systems, such as main server systems and data warehouse systems. Nowadays, to gain better performance, large-scale servers have come into use that are composed of number of processors linked together. In order to expand system scalability and construct large-scale systems, two methods are usually adopted: the Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP) system, whereby multiple processors are arranged in a bus configuration, or the cluster system, in which multiple servers are connected by a LAN. However, both methods have drawbacks. With the SMP method, there are limits on the number of processors, while the cluster system is not well suited for building large-scale systems because of because of deficiencies in the LAN connection. The new Synfinity interconnect technology addresses these problems, and expands server scalability by adopting a "building block" method that makes it possible to construct large-scale systems by either the SMP or cluster methods.

Fujitsu is currently developing Synfinity II, the next generation interconnect technology, that will offer even higher transfer performance of 2.5 gigabytes per second at 1.25 GHz frequency. The company also plans to integrate cluster systems combining a global servers, IA servers and SPARC servers using Synfinity II.

Synfinity is a trade of the Fujitsu Group.
Synfinity has been jointly developed by Fujitsu and HAL Computer Systems,
Fujitsu subsidiary in the U.S.

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu Limited is a leading provider of information technology products and solutions for the global marketplace. Founded in Japan in 1935 as a telephone equipment maker, the Fujitsu Group had consolidated revenues of $37.7 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 1998.
With over 500 group companies, including Amdahl and ICL, Fujitsu is one of the world's largest suppliers of computers and information systems solutions, telecommunications and semiconductor products, software and services. The Fujitsu Group has over 180,000 employees worldwide and operations in more than 100 countries.
Home page: http://www.fujitsu.com/

Press contact Fujitsu Limited, Public Relations Toshiaki Koike, Makoto Saito Tel: +81-3-3215-5236 (Tokyo) Fax: +81-3-3216-9365

Customer contact HAL Compyter Systems, Inc. Fujitsu System Technologies David Rich Tel: +1-408-341-5569 Fax: +1-408-341-5901 e-mail: drich@fjst.com