The PCIe architecture is an open specification designed to address the wide range of current and future system interconnect requirements of multiple market segments in the computing and communications industries. It also defines a flexible, scalable, high - speed, serial, point - to - point, hot pluggable/hot swappable interconnect that is software - compatible with PCI.

The PCIe architecture allows the LP1050Ex to use the same drivers and management tools as the Emulex LP10000 family of Fibre Channel HBAs for PCI and PCI-X, and PCIe systems. Emulex's unique Service Level Interface (SLI) driver architecture, which enables the independence of the operating systems device driver from the underlying HBA platform, will allow OEMs and end users to migrate to this new system architecture seamlessly (without having to change or rewrite drivers utilities and other management tools). Emulex's firmware - based architecture, which allows for new features and other upgrades without costly changes to the adapter hardware, provides the kind of technical flexibility and investment protection that is critical when working with new and evolving technology.

The Emulex LP1050Ex HBA will leverage Emulex's centralized HBA management suite, HBAnyware. HBAnyware is driver - based technology that enables discovery and complete management of HBAs within the SAN, reducing total cost of ownership and planned downtime while enabling sophisticated management capabilities such as remote firmware upgrades from a single console anywhere in a SAN.

Emulex HBAs are supported by a wide range of operating system drivers, including Windows, Solaris, Linux, HP-UX, and NetWare, as well as a variety of OEM - developed operating system drivers. Emulex drivers support an open standards - based management application programming interface (API), which allows OEM customers and partners to seamlessly integrate support for Emulex's HBAs, enabling the development and implementation of advanced storage area network management services.

MultiPulse is driver - based high availability technology that provides failover and dynamic load balancing capabilities when used with Emulex Fibre Channel host bus adapters. A driver based technology, MultiPulse has full visibility to the storage area network (SAN), enabling superior SAN reliability, performance and HBA resource utilization across heterogeneous SANs. MultiPulse complements current multipathing solutions by enabling OEMs to incorporate MultiPulse technology into their own products via Emulex's APIs.