3Com Introduces Next Generation Workgroup and Collapsed Backbone Switching Hubs; New LANplex 2000 Series delivers affordable switching with eight times greater throughput than competing products.SANTA CLARA Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 1994--3Com Corporation, (NASDAQA:COMS COMS 3Com Corporation (stock symbol) COMS Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist COMS Continuous Opacity Monitoring Systems COMS City of Manchester Stadium (UK) ) the market leader in switching, Monday extended the benefits of cost-effective, high performance switching to a new class of users with two new members of its popular LANplex family. The new LANplex 2000 Series, including the LANplex 2500 and 2016 switching hubs, delivers unprecedented levels of performance and functionality for low density, cost-sensitive workgroup and small collapsed backbone A network configuration that provides a backbone in a centralized location, to which all subnetworks are attached. A collapsed backbone is implemented in a router or switch that uses a high-speed backplane that can handle the simultaneous traffic of all or most of its ports at full wire environments. The new switches offer customers up to eight times the throughput of competing products from Cisco, Kalpana and others, for as little as $562 per segment. The new LANplex 2500 and LANplex 2016 switches are the first deliverables in an 18-month switching plan that 3Com announced today (see Business Wire story slugged (3COM) which ran today). The plan offers enterprise-wide switching solutions for customer networks of all sizes. It includes data center, collapsed backbone and departmental/workgroup switching products for Ethernet, Token Ring A local area network (LAN) access method developed by IBM. Conforming to the IEEE 802.5 standard, Token Ring uses a token ring access method and connects up to 255 nodes in a star topology at 4, 16 or 100 Mbps. , FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) Often pronounced "fiddy," it was a LAN and MAN access method that had its heyday in the mid-1990s. FDDI was an ANSI standard token passing network that transmitted 100 Mbps over optical fiber up to 10 kilometers. , Fast Ethernet An earlier name for 100Mbps Ethernet. See 100Base-T. (networking) Fast Ethernet - A version of Ethernet developed in the 1990s(?) which can carry 100 Mbps compared with standard Ethernet's 10 Mbps. It requires upgraded network cards and hubs. and ATM environments. The new LANplex 2500 and 2016 leverage 3Com's industry-leading application-specific integrated circuit (hardware) Application-Specific Integrated Circuit - (ASIC) An integrated circuit designed to perform a particular function by defining the interconnection of a set of basic circuit building blocks drawn from a library provided by the circuit manufacturer. (ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. ) technology . The new switches use 3Com's new Intelligent Switching Engine (ISE Ise (ē`sā), city (1990 pop. 104,164), Mie prefecture, S Honshu, Japan, on Ise Bay. It is one of the foremost religious centers of Shinto, the site of the shrines of Ise. ) chip to offer high performance, feature-rich intelligent switching, bridging and integrated routing. Offering a packet forwarding rate of more than 565,000 packets per second (pps) for an entry price of less than $9,000, the LANplex 2500 and 2016 switches are the industry's most powerful FDDI/Ethernet workgroup switches with the most comprehensive feature set available today. The LANplex 2500 outperforms the Cisco Catalyst, which offers approximately 67,000 pps in departmental/workgroup switching environments. 3Com offers roughly eight times the packet throughput of the Catalyst, for about two-thirds of the cost. "The LANplex family is already an established leader for data center and collapsed backbone switching," said Bob Finocchio finocchio: see fennel. , 3Com's executive vice president, Network Systems Operations. "The LANplex 2500 and 2016 leverage the technology and functionality in our high-end LANplex switching hubs to deliver workgroup performance that Cisco and Kalpana switches simply can't match." Superior ASIC Technology The LANplex 2000 Series provides the industry's most comprehensive intelligent switching capability. The heart of the new LANplex switching hubs is 3Com's new ISE chip, which enables the packet forwarding at rates in excess of 565,000 pps. In addition to its high performance, the ISE architecture supports 3Com's comprehensive intelligent switching capability, elastic buffering, virtual LANs, packet filtering, and integrated routing. Elastic packet buffering, a combination of static and dynamic buffer allocations, minimizes dropped packets during periods of network congestion. Virtual LANs may be defined within the switch in three ways: port groups, address groups or protocol (IP) groups. Packet filtering is also provided per port within each switch. "The LANplex 2500 switch is ideal for high speed connections to servers and provides us with a migration path to ATM and 100Base-T," said Larry Quinlan, manager of network services, Deloitte & Touche. "These new LANplex hubs offer significant performance improvements compared with the other departmental/workgroup switching hubs we considered." "3Com has effectively built on the foundation of its ASIC technology, adding an important Ethernet feeder switch solution designed for a high speed (FDDI) server uplink, with a clear path to Fast Ethernet and ATM network connectivity," said Charles Robbins, vice president of communications research at Aberdeen Group. "The result is a strong combination: backbone switching in the LANplex 6000 family and high performance workgroup switching in the LANplex 2000 family. This is an important offering for 3Com's channels and its customers, and opens opening up new market opportunities." Comprehensive Management The LANplex 2000 Series switches are managed by 3Com's Transcend network management. Comprehensive per port traffic statistics allow continuous traffic management throughout the switch. In addition, the Roving Access ports feature allows external network analyzers and RMON probes (such as those from Frontier Software, Axon axon: see nervous system; synapse. Networks and Concord Communications) to analyze traffic from any LANplex switched port. The Roving Access port capability can be used on any number of the switched Ethernet segments or across multiple switches. "3Com's roving access port offers a unique capability for cost-effective monitoring of large numbers switched LAN segments," said Nate Kalowski, vice president of marketing and business development, Frontier Software. LANplex 2500 and LANplex 2016 The LANplex 2500 features a modular design that supports up to 16 switched 10Mbps Ethernets and two switched high speed ports. The high speed ports are available as either FDDI or TP-DDI (SAS (1) (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, www.sas.com) A software company that specializes in data warehousing and decision support software based on the SAS System. Founded in 1976, SAS is one of the world's largest privately held software companies. See SAS System. or DAS) with both 100Base-T and ATM interfaces planned for the second half of 1995. The LANplex 2500 accepts two Ethernet modules each which provide 8 ports of 10Base-T (RJ-45 or RJ-21) or 10Base-FL, with 10Base-2 and AUI (Attachment Unit Interface) The network interface used with the original Ethernet. See 10Base5. 1. (tool, product) AUI - Adaptable User Interface. 2. (networking) AUI - Attachment Unit Interface. planned for early 1995. The LANplex 2016 is based on the same modular design as the LANplex 2500 and provides up to 16 Ethernet ports. Ethernet module choices are the same as the LANplex 2500. In small collapsed backbone environments, the LANplex 2016 offers 50 percent greater throughput than competitive offerings from Kalpana and other vendors, at the same cost. Both systems are available with either single or dual redundant power supplies. Pricing and Availability 3Com will begin shipping the LANplex 2500 and LANplex 2016 switches in the first quarter of 1995. Pricing for the LANplex 2500 configured with 16 switched Ethernets and one DAS FDDI port starts as $14,395. The LANplex 2016 configured with 16 switched Ethernets starts at $8,995 (all prices U.S. list.) The products will be available through 3Com's worldwide distribution channels, including VARS VARS Value Added Reseller VARS Vehicle Accounting and Reporting System (US Immigration and Naturalization Service) VARS Vertical and Azimuth Reference System VARS Variant Stem VARS Variables , resellers, distributors and direct sales. For information, contact 3Com at 1-800-NET3COM. 3Com's Switching Leadership 3Com leads the switching hub market according to the Yankee Group's 1993 market revenue survey and Dataquest's mid-year 1994 market review, with proven switching technology and the market's broadest line of switching products to meet virtually any network switching requirement. 3Com's industry-leading switching product line includes the LANplex product family, the LinkSwitch product family (stackable switches for SuperStack systems and LinkSwitch modules for LinkBuilder MSH MSH melanocyte-stimulating hormone. MSH abbr. melanocyte-stimulating hormone MSH, n See hormone, melanocyte-stimulating. MSH melanocyte-stimulating hormone. chassis hubs) and CELLplex ATM switching solutions (available through 3Com's recent acquisition of NiceCom, Ltd.) Founded in 1979, 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :COMS) pioneered the data networking industry. Today, 3Com offers customers a broad range of ISO (1) See ISO speed. (2) (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iso.ch) An organization that sets international standards, founded in 1946. The U.S. member body is ANSI. 9000-compliant global data networking solutions that includes routers, hubs, switches and adapters for Ethernet, Token Ring and high speed networks. Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., 3Com, a Fortune 500 company, has worldwide research and development. manufacturing, marketing, sales and support capabilities. -0- Note to Editors: 3Com, LANplex and LinkBuilder are registered trademarks, and CELLplex, LinkSwitch, MSH, SuperStack and Transcend are trademarks of 3Com Corporation. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners. CONTACT: 3Com Public Relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most
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