Enterprise RAM-Based SSDs From STEC Feature Wear-Resistant Enterprise Storage for HPC Environments That Depend Upon Fast Write Performance, High Availability Storage and Super Low-Latency Responses

HAMBURG, Germany, June 20, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ISC 2011 -- STEC, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEC), The SSD Company™, a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and products, today announced that its popular ZeusRAM™ SSD will be featured in the STEC booth (#822), with live demonstrations in selective customer booths, at this week's International Supercomputing Conference (ISC). Targeted towards high-write transactional oriented environments that depend upon fast write performance, ZeusRAM SSD is ideally suited for high-performance computing (HPC) applications where high availability storage and super low-latency responses are required to minimize response times and speed up system analytics and performance.

ZeusRAM SSD is a perfect fit for metadata (the information on where and how data is stored) and logging applications in HPC environments. It solves the primary challenge in these HPC environments by providing high access speed to data while minimizing latency to a low sub 23 microseconds. This capability is especially important to network attached storage (NAS) and unified storage appliances that need high-speed access to metadata on very complex and analytical systems.

Built upon STEC's proven ZeusIOPS^® architecture, ZeusRAM SSD utilizes fully backed up DRAM to Flash capabilities that ensures power back-up protection in the event of a host system's power loss. This innovative design leverages the endurance of DRAM and the persistence of flash memory to create an enterprise drive for HPC applications that is highly reliable with superior wear resistance.

"Given its fast access to metadata, persistent writes, and wear resistant reliability, our ZeusRAM SSD solution is ideal for HPC applications and will replace older technologies outside of the traditional enterprise storage arenas that includes NAS, unified storage and data protection appliances," said Manouch Moshayedi, STEC's Chairman and CEO. "Coupled with ultra low-latency, ZeusRAM SSD minimizes storage bottlenecks to deliver a best-in-class experience within the enterprise."

Supporting Customer Quotes

"Combining our certified NexentaStor solutions with STEC's ZeusRAM and ZeusIOPS SSDs, we are able to provide a robust and extremely high performing system on which we, and our customers, can fully rely on," said Florian Hettenbach, Product Manager Storage & Virtualization, Thomas Krenn AG. "We are absolutely confident with the superior quality and performance that these STEC solid-state drives provide."

"Our partnership with STEC enables our customers to gain real and tangible performance improvements for their HPC applications simply by implementing STEC drives in their systems," said Ryan Tyler, Technical Sales Manager, VA Technologies. "We believe that true high performance storage without compromise no longer comes with a large premium."

"We have chosen STEC as our leading SSD vendor of choice for use within our award-winning range of Boston Igloo NX Series appliances," said Manoj Nayee, Managing Director, Boston Limited. "Our engineers and clients alike have been exceptionally impressed with the performance and stability of STEC's ZeusRAM and ZeusIOPS drives, that we use to accelerate write cache and adaptive second-level read cache in our range of Nexenta ZFS-based storage solutions."

For more information regarding this announcement, and other STEC SSD solutions, such as the popular ZeusIOPS SSD that delivers consistent, industry-leading steady state IOPS performance for mainstream server storage and high demand/high performance applications, please visit the company's web site at http://www.stec-inc.com.

About STEC

STEC, Inc., The SSD Company™, is a leading global provider of solid-state drive (SSD) technologies and solutions tailored to meet the high-performance, high-reliability needs of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). With headquarters in Santa Ana, California and locations worldwide, STEC leverages almost two decades of solid-state drive knowledge and experience to deliver the most comprehensive line of SSDs to the storage industry. For more information, visit the company's web site at http://www.stec-inc.com.

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STEC, the STEC logo, The SSD Company, ZeusRAM and ZeusIOPS are either registered trademarks or trademarks of STEC, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks or brand names referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those statements concerning customer adoption and utilization of ZeusRAM SSD and ZeusIOPS SSD solutions, the performance of these SSD solutions into the HPC market, and the adoption of SSDs in general into new applications and markets. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements are detailed in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission MADE from time to time by STEC, including its Annual report on Form 10-K, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and its Current Reports on Form 8-K. The information contained in this press release is a statement of STEC's present intention, belief or expectation. STEC may change its intention, belief or expectation, at any time and without notice, based upon any changes in such factors, in STEC's assumptions or otherwise. STEC undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.