Serano Systems announces new I2O development and testtools;.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 14, 1997--

ShelTest and BlockSTRESS accelerate development of I2O solutions

Serano Systems Corporation (www.serano.com), a total solutions provider for the intelligent I/O system level integration market, today announced the

The new tools, ShelTest(tm) and BlockSTRESS(tm), are designed to accelerate the development and integration of I2O products by server OEMs, independent hardware and operating system vendors. Beta versions of both tools are being distributed by free web site download.

ShelTest improves a customers' time to market and development costs by creating an interactive I2O Operating System Service Module (OSM) which may be used to send and receive I2O messages in a controlled manner to an I2O Device Driver Module (DDM). The use of BlockSTRESS in conjunction with ShelTest improves the quality of a Random Block Storage class DDM by stress testing its I2O shell interface.

"Every I2O developer and test engineer needs off-the-shelf tools to get their products to market faster," said Joe Edens, President, Serano Systems Corporation. "No vendor that I know of has spare development bandwidth or time to develop and maintain proprietary, in-house tools."

ShelTest executes under DOS to allow customers the advantage of using an operating system that quickly boots. Fast system boots are important when customers are developing, debugging and testing I2O platforms.

An easy to use graphical user interface is the primary method of interacting with ShelTest and the I/O Processor. A DOS command line interface provides a second method of interacting with an automated test environment.

ShelTest supports the Executive, Utility and Random Block Storage message classes as defined in the I2O Specification (v1.5). I2O messages are implemented in a ShelTest Message Library. ShelTest's architecture allows customers to add support for additional I2O message classes later through library upgrades. This modular architecture allows users to leverage their initial investment through subsequent versions of the I2O specification and additional message classes.

ShelTest also includes a Command Library, which is a set of Serano developed commands or message scripts. The use of either Serano-provided or customer-authored commands greatly increases ShelTest's power as a development and test platform. Each command is a script of other commands or I2O messages from the message library. The Command Library is written in the TCL scripting language which was designed to support test environments.

The BlockSTRESS Command Library, which is referenced by ShelTest, is also available for beta release. BlockSTRESS is designed as a tool for Random Block Storage DDM providers to validate the operation of the DDM against the I2O specification. Successful completion of the BlockSTRESS tests builds independent hardware vendors' confidence that their products will work with industry standard Random Block Storage OSMs or device drivers. Operating System vendors can use BlockSTRESS as an integral part of their certification process for third party I2O products.

The I2O SIG membership represents a broad spectrum of system, network and peripheral interface card and operating system vendors. The specifications they develop will be used to simplify the task of building and maintaining high-performance I/O subsystems for interface cards and PC server platforms. SIG information is available through the World Wide Web at http://www.i2osig.org, or by calling the I2O SIG executive director, Michael LoBue, 415-750-8352, lobue@i2osig.org .

Serano Systems Corp. is a privately held developer of hardware and software solutions for the intelligent I/O market. Founded in January 1997, Serano is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. -0-

Note to Editors: Serano, ShelTest and BlockSTRESS are trademarks of Serano Systems Corp. I2O is a registered trademark of the I2O Special Interest Group.

CONTACT: Serano Systems Corporation, Colorado Springs

John Ives, 719-260-2331

john.ives@serano.com

http://www.serano.com