Press Release

Simplified Approach to Shared Capacity Ushers in Era of Unbound Compute™

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California – April 18, 2005 – Azul Systems™ Inc. today introduced the Azul Compute Appliance, the world’s greatest capacity single system targeted at virtual-machine based applications such as those using the Java™ platform or the Microsoft® .Net™ framework. Multiple appliances can form seamless compute pools allowing tens to hundreds of applications to share a common managed resource. Azul Compute Appliances eliminate capacity planning at the application level, reduce the number of servers required to build out a data center, and simplify management, all without any application-level modifications, binary compatibility requirements, or operating system dependencies. Azul Compute Appliances are available this quarter for customer orders and as part of the company’s “No Cost Evaluation” program. There are three configurations with 96, 192, and 384 coherent processor cores. Prices for a 96-way symmetric multiprocessing system with 32 GB of memory start at $89,000 in the US .

With data center class reliability, availability, and serviceability, the appliances have been in field trials since last fall. Azul Systems has also announced an alliance with IBM Global Services which will provide North American service and support for Azul Compute Appliances.

At the heart of the Azul Compute Appliance is the industry’s first 24-core, 64-bit SMP-capable microprocessor that is optimized for virtual machine-based applications. The Azul Vega TM chip supports object-oriented operations, pauseless garbage collection, 96 GB of heap, and optimistic thread concurrency. "It’s clear that multi-core processors and network attached processing will make IT planners rethink the value equation of today's infrastructure services,” said Vernon Turner, Group Vice President, Global Enterprise Server Solutions at IDC.

“Never before have we seen this level of Java processing for transactions,” said JJ Everett, CEO of Everett Consulting, an IT management consulting firm that specializes in large scale implementation of applications based on the popular J2EE™ platform. “Side-by-side test cycles of real-world application profiles have proven to us that the Azul technology has no competition.”

“Extensively tested, incredible ROI, excellent service, and a no-cost evaluation program: that’s an unbeatable combination.” said Stephen DeWitt, president and CEO, Azul Systems. “Network attached processing is here. It is simple to use, simple to deploy, and it will change the way we think about compute capacity.”

Separating the “compute” from the “computer” enables the creation of compute pools that can be accessed from any server on the network without requiring any changes to applications or existing infrastructure. It also reduces the complexity of managing a multi-tenant shared environment. Azul Systems’ policy-based Compute Pool Manager provides flexible, central control of application resources, adapting to changing application workloads in real-time.

The Azul Compute Appliance integrates easily with today’s leading application server deployments including IBM ® WebSphere®, BEA® WebLogic® platforms as well as JBoss™ and other open source J2EE platforms.

Density, power, and cooling requirements are critical considerations in data centers today and an area where Azul delivers revolutionary economics. With 384 coherent processor cores and 256 GB of memory, the Azul Compute Appliance 3840 is rack-mountable occupying no more than 11u of rack space and drawing only 2.7 KW of power. Azul Compute Appliance 1920 provides 192 processor cores and is also offered in an 11u enclosure. The Azul Compute Appliance 960 is available for development and test with 96 processor cores and 32 GB of memory. It is housed in a 5u standard rack-mountable enclosure and draws 850 Watts of power.

About Azul Systems
Azul Systems™ has pioneered the industry’s first network attached processing solution, designed to unbound compute resources for virtual machine based applications. Without any application level modifications, binary compatibility requirements or operating system dependencies, this fundamentally new approach eliminates the need to capacity plan at the application level and dramatically lowers the cost and complexity associated with the traditional delivery of computing resources. More information on Azul Systems can be found at www.azulsystems.com.

Legal Notices
Azul Systems, Azul, and the Azul arch logo are trademarks of Azul Systems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Java and all Java based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. IBM and WebSphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States and other countries. BEA and WebLogic are registered trademarks of BEA Systems, Inc. JBoss is a registered trademark and servicemark of JBoss, Inc. Other marks are the property of their respective owners and are used here only for identification purposes.

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