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SoftRAID 2.2.2 Press Release

Mendocino, CA--- July 17, 2000--SoftRAID, LLC releases SoftRAID 2.2.2, a free update to the industries leading RAID software.

SoftRAID, LLC. announced today the release of version 2.2.2 of its acclaimed SoftRAID product, which provides disk Mirroring and Striping RAID support for Mac OS. (RAID stands for, redundant array of independent devices.) SoftRAID has been thoroughly tested with AppleShare IP, and is the preferred disk driver for all intensive I/O requirements, especially Mac OS file servers and database servers.

Updates to SoftRAID 2.2.2 are available. There is no charge to upgrade to 2.2.2 from any previous version of SoftRAID 2.0 or later.

While there are only minor changes with SoftRAID 2.2.2, this is an important upgrade for all Server users, especially users taking advantage of RAID level 1 (Mirroring).

As usual, SoftRAID 2.2.2 was heavily tested before release by SoftRAID, LLC and our OEM customers, especially with AppleShare IP. SoftRAID 2.2.2 is compatible with the Mac OS 9.0.4 and all Apple Mac OS hardware which includes SCSI capability.

NEW FEATURES

** Faster Mirror Rebuilds:
SoftRAID 2.2.2 incorporates new mirror rebuild algorithms. SoftRAID allows the user to rebuild Mirror Volumes in the background, while the Server or desktop machine is in full operation. The new Mirror Rebuild algorithm allows volume rebuilds to run at the maximum speed that the drives and bus are capable. Internal testing has shown an 8 to 10 fold increase in rebuild performance, with SoftRAID able to rebuild mirrored volumes in excess of 25GB per hour, while the Server is running!

The design of the rebuild algorithm is very intelligent. When a Server drive is busy fetching data, the rebuild pauses for the I/O to complete. Servers will run at 98% efficiency during a Mirror Rebuild, ALThough rebuilds take longer during heavy Server usage.

** Targa 2000/3000, Digital Voodoo compatibility:
Earlier versions of SoftRAID had a conflict with some Digital Video cards, particularly the Targa and Digital Effects Voodoo cards. SoftRAID 2.2.2 is now completely compatible with both(Targa and DE), and SoftRAID is now highly recommended by Digital Effects as the best and easiest to use RAID software for their Mac OS users. SoftRAID has also been tested extensively with the Final Cut Pro, and is fully compatible with all aspects of FCP.

** Better Performance with Quantum Drives:
Benchmark testing showed a problem with Quantum U160 (Ultra3 SCSI) drives. SoftRAID's driver would issue "Ordered IO" commands whenever concurrent I/O was issued to a drive. Quantum U160 drives exhibit a problem with ordered I/O SCSI commands. Quantum U160 drives time out for a few milliseconds after each ordered I/O command. Hence, performance would suffer by as much as 50% on all SoftRAID writes. SoftRAID now issues all SCSI I/O commands as "Simple I/O".
Hardware RAID is affected, in that SoftRAID driver acceleration should always be disabled with hardware RAID, especially the CMD RAID controllers.

** There are a few minor bug fixes addressed in SoftRAID 2.2.2.:

A rare Mirror Rebuild hang was fixed.

The Mirror rebuild data buffers were redesigned to be more memory efficient during intensive Rebuilds.

When a user runs SoftRAID on a system without a SCSI bus, a more informative message now appears telling the user that SoftRAID requires installation of a SCSI card.

Adherence to the New World ROM requirements which allows bootability from any partition on a disk. (Striped Volumes are still not Bootable from Apple's "beige deficient" hardware)

SoftRAID longer retries i/o requests which have a RECOVERED ERROR sense key.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUPPORT

SoftRAID, LLC believes in providing our users with high quality prompt technical support. While this is done almost exclusively through E-mail, it is our goal to answer all support queries the same day, and currently our average response time per query is under 2 hours. Many queries are handled within minutes when possible.

The SoftRAID web site also contains a weALTh of information about using SoftRAID, troubleshooting tips, and provides free upgrades to any user with SoftRAID 2.0 or later. Since SoftRAID 2.0 was released in July, 1998, we have provided 8 free updates for our users.

ABOUT SoftRAID, LLC.

SoftRAID, LLC is a privately held company based in Mendocino, CA. SoftRAID is the leader in RAID technology for the Macintosh, and is bundled by several leading storage providers for Mac OS platform, including Apple, Adaptec and VST. SoftRAID, LLC can be contacted by E-mail, and is on the Web at http://www.softraid.com.

CONTACT
Mark James, President
415 383 3793
mjames@softraid.com

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