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Jeff Allen, Senior VP, Strategy & Development, BlueArc: Page 2 of 10

Allen: We sell a product called the Silicon Server, essentially a box with specialty chips in it that can handle repetitive tasks in data storage and retrieval, a main function of servers. These special chips do such things as interpreting the basic technical protocols and filing schemes used by operating systems. Instead of employing a jack-of-all-trades microprocessor as its brain, each BlueArc server uses an assembly line of specialized chips – ASICs – that do a few tasks at blinding speed.

BlueArc benchmarks show that our servers fetch data files at five to 10 times the speed of competing products. About 100 times more users can tap into one server than other storage appliances, and each server can manage up to 200 trillion bytes of data, or 30 times more than rival machines.

Byte and Switch: Wheeeee! How many of these babies have you sold then?

Allen: Lots.

Byte and Switch: Lots?