Solarflare Announces Additional $44 Million in Private Funding

Solarflare Communications has been shipping its second-generation 10GBASE-T PHY product for switch and server customers, including original design manufacturers (ODMs), since December 3, 2008. In addition, the company has been shipping the industry's lowest-power 10GbE vNIC controller chip since February 2007. Solarflare will use this funding to ramp the manufacturing of the industry's lowest-power, highest performance 10GBASE-T PHY product to support the forthcoming launch dates of its switch and server customers.

"This environment is the most difficult I have ever seen for financing new companies," said Charles Cotton, investor and member of the board of directors, Solarflare Communications. "Any company not engaged in a large market with clear leadership in technology and products will not survive. Solarflare's ability to raise this significant sum of money during today's financial uncertainty demonstrates the strong confidence the board and investors have in the company's ability to execute and grow its business."

"We are the only company shipping both 10GBASE-T PHYs and 10GbE controllers," said Russell Stern, chief executive officer of Solarflare. "The 10GbE market is now in a rapid transition to 10GBASE-T connections over twisted-pair copper. Our transceiver's very low power enables low-cost, high-density switches and multiport server adapters. With less than half the competitors' power consumption and at least one to two silicon nodes ahead, this financing will secure Solarflare's position as the leader in the next generation of Ethernet infrastructure silicon and software."

Due to support for previous lower speeds of Ethernet and installed Category 5E and Category 6 copper cabling, 10GBASE-T enables IT managers to upgrade their networks to 10 Gigabit speeds, while preserving investments in current infrastructure. Because it does not require forklift uplift upgrades, 10GBASE-T is a networking solution well suited to these tough economic times when IT managers are faced with constrained budgets. Consuming just 4 watts of power, Solarflare's SFT9001 achieves a Gigabit per second per watt ratio of 2.5, surpassing 1000BASE-T's ratio of only 2.0. Moreover, the Solarflare 10Xpress SFT9001 Dynamic Power Scaling(TM) feature can achieve power savings up to 600 mW on cable lengths between 30 and 100 meters.

For more information, please visit www.solarflare.com.

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About Solarflare 10 Gigabit Products

Solarflare designs and develops the highest-performing, lowest-power, standards-compliant 10GbE controllers and 10GBASE-T transceivers on the market. Optimized for all key virtualization platforms including Citrix XenEnterprise, Microsoft's Hyper-V and VMware's ESX server, Solarflare's Solarstorm(R) Ethernet controller consumes less than 1.9 watts at full line-rate performance, delivering the optimal balance in performance and power efficiency. Solarflare's 10Xpress(R) 10GBASE-T PHY supports distances of greater than 100 meters on UTP Category 6A cabling, 100 meters on STP Category 6, 55 meters on UTP Category 6, and 45 meters on UTP Category 5E cabling. When combined on a server adapter, Solarflare's 10Xpress 10GBASE-T PHY and Solarstorm 10GbE controller deliver 10 times the performance of a 1 Gigabit NIC at half the power consumption of previous 10GbE server adapters. For additional product information and pricing, send a request to productinfo@solarflare.com.

About Solarflare Communications, Inc.

Solarflare Communications is a semiconductor company delivering the next level of high-performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE). As the leading provider of standards-compliant 10GbE silicon, Solarflare delivers robust and power-efficient solutions that are cost effective and easy to deploy. Now real and ready for primetime, Solarflare 10 Gigabit Ethernet makes possible next-generation applications such as streaming rich media, Web 2.0, server virtualization and network convergence. Solarflare is working with key industry partners and customers to ensure interoperability and drive a complete 10GBASE-T ecosystem. Solarflare has announced relationships with Accton, Citrix, Delta, Ixia, Panduit, SMC, and VMware. The privately held company is headquartered in Irvine, Calif. with a development center in Cambridge, UK. For more information, visit http://www.solarflare.com.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

SOURCE: Solarflare Communications

LEWIS PR for Solarflare Amy Robinson / Katie Eakins 619-677-2700 solarflare@lewispr.com or Solarflare Communications Nicole E. Martin 415-860-9194 nmartin@solarflare.com