Compaq ProLiant 7000 PCI Hot Plug Technology - Page 4

ECG080/0698 TECHNOLOGY BRIEF (cont.) ... need to be overhauled just because certain components are hot-plug capable. The technology is fully backward compatible. These same factors are also benefits when viewed from an industry perspective. For example, as an industry-wide standard, PCI Hot Plug technology is functional with multiple OSs, hardware systems, and adapters. This interoperability gives the industry a strong footing to ensure adoption of the technology and progress to other advancements. Because of the focused effort on a single standard, resources are not fragmented into modifying solutions for particular proprietary hardware or software but provide synergistic growth into more advanced technologies. As an open standard, PCI Hot Plug is attractive to the major OS and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) and encourages their development of compliant products. An open, industry standard clearly benefits Compaq as well. By developing PCI Hot Plug technology and initiating the industry standard for hot plug, Compaq extends its technology leadership position in the industry. Compaq will also benefit from the interoperability of the open standard, as it will provide a natural progression into further high-availability advancements. With the ProLiant 6500 and ProLiant 7000 servers, Compaq delivered the first industry-standard PCI Hot Plug systems and once again set the standard in high-availability and fault-tolerant solutions for the distributed enterprise. PROGRESS TOWARD AN INDUSTRY STANDARD Since Compaq's June 1996 announcement to deliver PCI Hot Plug technology as an open, industry standard, Compaq has worked with key hardware and software partners and the industrywide PCI standards committee. This effort allows customers to move forward in implementing this technology with greater flexibility. Compaq has taken several steps to ensure broad industry acceptance of the technology, including: • Standardized PCI Hot Plug technology by initiating and chairing the PCI Special Interest Group (SIG) Hot Plug Workgroup. The workgroup included other industry leaders such as Adaptec, Inc.; Cirrus Logic, Inc.; Digital Equipment Corporation; Hewlett-Packard Company; IBM Corporation; Intel; Microsoft; Novell; Pro-Log Corporation; The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. (SCO); and Texas Instruments Incorporated. Efforts of the workgroup allowed a quick release of the PCI Hot Plug Specification-only 14 months from the group's charter. For more information on the PCI Hot Plug Specification, visit the PCI SIG website at http://www.pcisig.com. • Partnered with OS developers to ensure incorporation of the PCI Hot Plug standard in product releases. Compaq has taken a proactive role in ensuring broad OS support for hotplug capabilities. Actions to date range from the development of cross-company design teams to the delivery of PCI Hot Plug platforms for testing OSs. Currently, Microsoft, Novell, and SCO support PCI Hot Plug. • Worked with leading adapter vendors such as 3Com Corporation; Adaptec; Dialogic Corporation; Digi International; Mylex Corporation; QLogic Corporation; American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI); Madge Networks; SMC Networks Inc.; and SysKonnect to ensure broad acceptance and rapid implementation of the standard. • Licensed PCI Hot Plug technology to be available in Intel architecture-based server platforms. Intel will incorporate Compaq's implementation of PCI Hot Plug, including the hot-plug controller and related system technologies, in future products. • Developed hot-plug aware drivers for Compaq NetFlex controllers, Netelligent controllers, Smart array controllers, and Fast-Wide SCSI-2 controllers. 4