14 DAY TRIAL // Qlogic and Emulex have been archrivals for quite some time and the latest episode in their battle over prominence in the storage area networking market features Emulex being called to court by its rival after publishing a video of frying an egg on a Qlogic converged network adapter chip. The lawsuit was filed in a California Superior court and has the plaintiff stating that Emulex's video is intentionally deceptive.
The Emulex video was published on YouTube and has a company engineer trying to help potential customers avoid "actual crash and burn in the data center." The main statement of the video is that the QLogic QLE8152 converged network adapter operates on an internal temperature of 190 degrees, "as much as 70 degrees higher," compared with the Emulex Oce10102. Though time-lapsed, the video shows a miniature frying pan frying egg matter squeezed inside it with a syringe.
"In fact, it's not just the [chip] that's at risk," the Emulex engineer continues. "The heat has to go somewhere and it happens to be right into your server. A server failure can have a huge impact on your operations, employee productivity, or customer satisfaction, depending on your applications."
No doubt, the final straw that prompted Qlogic to file the legal action was the video's punchline. "If you want the lowest temperatures, the best performance, and proven reliable products, come to Emulex," the engineer says, "if you want breakfast, go to QLogic."
"Emulex's video purporting to show an egg frying on a QLogic semiconductor chip is misleading and intended to deceive potential customers of QLogic products," the suit reads.
The suit states that Emulex's "datacenter failure" claims are intentionally false and misleading and that "Emulex's focus on a point heat source on a QLogic product and equating that with reliability" is just as misleading. This lawsuit moreover claims that Emulex, according to Qlogic, made "completely and utterly false statements" intended to harm QLogic's business during a recent quarterly earnings call. Emulex, among other things, claimed that its competitor's product did not feature "certified and hardened Ethernet stack to support demanding server requirements."
Both companies refused to comment when contacted by The Street.