10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance Formed to Promote Next-Generation Ethernet and Support IEEE Standards Effort.

Business Editors and Technology Writers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2000

3Com, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, Intel, Nortel Networks,

Sun Microsystems, and World Wide Packets Join Forces to Promote 10

Gigabit Ethernet Technology

IEEE Standards Board Authorizes

10 Gigabit Ethernet Task Force (IEEE 802.3ae)

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance announced its formation today.

Its mission is to promote 10 Gigabit Ethernet for local area network (LAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), and wide area network (WAN) markets and support the IEEE 802.3 10 Gigabit Ethernet standards process. To this end, the Alliance also announced that the IEEE formally authorized the creation of the 802.3ae 10 Gigabit Ethernet Task Force to develop the standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The Alliance was founded by seven industry leaders: 3Com (Nasdaq:COMS), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO), Extreme Networks (Nasdaq:EXTR), Intel (Nasdaq:INTC), Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT), Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW), and World Wide Packets.

&uot;The market's rapid acceptance of Gigabit Ethernet clearly surpassed industry expectations,&uot; explained Tony Lee, President of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance and Director of Product Marketing at Extreme Networks. &uot;In order to serve the growing volume of Gigabit Ethernet traffic, not only in the LAN, but also for the first time, into the MAN/WAN, the availability of next-generation, high-speed Ethernet becomes ever more pressing. In anticipation of the emerging market, the Alliance has been created.&uot;

Since March 1999, approximately 70 companies and 150 engineers have been working on 10 Gigabit Ethernet in the IEEE 802.3 Higher Speed Study Group (HSSG). In January, the IEEE formally authorized the creation of the 802.3ae Task Force. This milestone marks the formal recognition that the Study Group has reached the necessary consensus about scope, goals, and technical feasibility of the project required to start a successful IEEE standards process.

&uot;The IEEE 802.3 High Speed Study Group has accomplished a major feat in establishing a consensus on such matters as market potential and economic and technical feasibility among a wide variety of experts representing diverse industry segments,&uot; said Jonathan Thatcher, Chair of the High Speed Study Group and Director of Engineering at World Wide Packets. &uot;While operation at 10 Gigabits per second is the natural evolution of Ethernet's highly successful network architecture, setting objectives for standardized operation at distances up to 40 km and inherent support for attachment to the Wide Area Network is nothing short of astounding.&uot; The Task Force has set itself an aggressive goal to achieve standardization by Spring of 2002.

&uot;There is growing end-user interest in higher-speed Ethernet. Potential end users of 10 Gigabit Ethernet have been attending the meetings of the IEEE 802.3 Higher Speed Study Group. Some have estimated that their LAN bandwidth requirements will reach between 10 and 160 Gbps by 2002 and others foresee deployment of 10 Gigabit Ethernet in MAN and WAN applications,&uot; commented Bruce Tolley, Vice President of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance and Product Manager at Cisco Systems.

Positioned as a high-speed technology for networking applications in LANs, MANs, and WANs, 10 Gigabit Ethernet will provide very high bandwidth with simplicity and relatively low cost. In LAN applications, 10 Gigabit Ethernet will enable network managers to scale their packet-based networks from 10 Mbps to 10,000 Mbps and thereby leverage their investments in Ethernet as they increase the performance of their networks. In MAN and WAN applications, 10 Gigabit Ethernet will enable Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Network Service Providers (NSPs) to create very high-speed links at very low cost between co-located carrier-class switches and routers.

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance was officially founded January 25th and held its first Board of Directors meeting on January 31st. The Board elected Tony Lee from Extreme Networks as President and Bob Grow from Intel Corporation and Bruce Tolley from Cisco Systems as Vice Presidents.

About the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance was organized to facilitate and accelerate the introduction of 10 Gigabit Ethernet into the networking market. It was founded by networking industry leaders: 3Com, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, Intel, Nortel Networks, Sun Microsystems, and World Wide Packets. Additionally, the Alliance will support the activities of IEEE 802.3 Ethernet committee, foster the development of the 802.3ae (10 Gigabit Ethernet) standard, and promote interoperability among 10 Gigabit Ethernet products.