3Com Unveils Roadmap for Standards-Based ATM Switching; New products provide price performance breakthrough for integrating ATM and Ethernet switching.

SANTA CLARA, CALIF.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 27, 1995--3Com Corporation, the leader in LAN switching, today announced its plans to deliver ATM switching as promised in 3Com's High Performance Scalable Networking (HPSN) strategy (Stage 3).

The company also announced product availability for its initial ATM switching products, which combine the scalability of ATM with the price/performance benefits of LAN switching.

3Com's ATM switching family gives users premium switching performance at very low prices. The LinkSwitch 2700 Ethernet/ATM workgroup switch offers the industry's lowest entry price ($8,400) for integrating ATM and Ethernet switching. The CELLplex 7000 ATM campus backbone switch is the heart of 3Com's ATM solution for campus backbones, dramatically boosting performance at prices far below traditional LAN alternatives such as FDDI switches or routers. The CELLplex 7200 Ethernet/ATM departmental switch combines the features and benefits of CELLplex 7000 and LinkSwitch 2700, offering two levels of switching in a single chassis. 3Com also announced availability schedules for SBus and PCI ATM adapters as well as ATM capabilities for its NETBuilder routers, LANplex switches and LinkBuilder MSH chassis hubs. (See product availability list below.)

"With the LinkSwitch 2700 and CELLplex product family, 3Com delivers the first practical ATM solution for the campus backbone as well as for integration of existing Ethernet networks," said Nachman Shelef, vice president and general manager of 3Com's ATM division.

The plans were announced at the prestigious ATM Year Three Conference in San Jose, where 3Com president and CEO Eric Benhamou and Shelef are featured speakers. Tampere Telephone Company of Finland will join 3Com at the conference to discuss the performance of 3Com switches in its test bed for a national ATM network.

ATM in the Backbone First

3Com's rollout plan deploys ATM first at the network backbone. According to the Yankee Group, the market for ATM as a LAN backbone technology will reach more than $600 million in 1996. This growth will be fueled by users' plans to incorporate this powerful technology into their existing network infrastructure as a backbone technology for mission-critical applications.

As the leader in backbone LAN switching (with 43 percent of the market according to Dataquest), 3Com is in the ideal position to set the price/performance standard for integrating existing LANs in an ATM campus backbone. This strategy protects customers' investments and leverages ATM technology where it currently offers the greatest benefit.

"ATM is the most cost-effective solution available for the backbone, where demand for bandwidth is typically the highest. Today customers can buy very expensive ATM solutions for the PC desktop or WAN. But the cost of WAN services puts ATM out of reach for most customers today. And for PC desktop connections we would recommend more cost-effective solutions today, such as switched Ethernet and Fast Ethernet," said Bob Finocchio, 3Com's executive vice president, Network Systems Operations.

3Com's ATM switches achieve their industry-leading price/performance through a unique cell switching approach. Cell switching is implemented through 3Com's leading-edge ASIC design for ATM, the ZipChip. Competitors combine the use of packets for Ethernet-to-Ethernet data exchanges and cells for traffic crossing the backbone. 3Com's streamlined approach reduces costs and delivers superior performance. CELLplex and LinkSwitch ATM switches use dedicated 10 Mbps links to boost workgroup performance while sending data over 155Mbps connections to the campus backbone.

Real World Applications for Standards-based ATM

3Com is a principal member of the ATM Forum and plays an active role on its key committees. Several 3Com committee members were cited for key contributions to the Forum's LAN emulation specification, on which balloting was completed this week. Key to ATM interoperability, LAN emulation supports protocol-independent data networking and LAN/ATM interconnection.

Completion of the last key specification makes ATM a viable option for customers' near-term network backbone deployment, and also speeds progress on institutional projects such as information superhighway programs.

3Com is already delivering ATM switches for a variety of commercial and institutional environments, and plans to roll out volume shipments over the next several months. Tampere Telephone, Tel Aviv University, University of North Carolina, Qualcomm, Inc. and a major Wall Street brokerage are among the users who have successfully installed LinkSwitch 2700 and CELLplex 7000 switches.

Tel Aviv University in Israel installed the LinkSwitch 2700 and CELLplex 7000 as part of a major multivendor ATM evaluation launched in December. The installation will serve as the test-bed for future campus backbone projects and ATM research at the university. According to Iddo Carmon, a systems analyst at the university, "The 3Com switches were up and running in 30 minutes. Installation was much faster and easier than we would have expected with any new ATM product."

The University of North Carolina has installed the LinkSwitch 2700 and CELLplex 7000 as part of the groundbreaking state information highway project. In addition, Qualcomm, Inc., a San Diego, Calif.-based wireless communications vendor, has installed the switches in preparation for a planned migration to ATM from an FDDI backbone.

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ATM Product Availability

    3Com announced the following planned availability schedule for
its ATM products:

1Q (First Quarter) 1995
   CELLplex 7000 ATM campus backbone switch (now shipping)

2Q (Second Quarter) 1995
   LinkSwitch 2700 Ethernet/ATM workgroup switch (with standard LAN
     emulation)
   SBus ATM adapter

2H (Second Half) 1995
   CELLplex 7200 Ethernet/ATM departmental switch
   LANplex 2000 ATM UNI (User Network Interface)
   LANplex 6000 ATM UNI
   NETBuilder II ATM UNI
   PCI ATM adapter
   LAN/ATM Switching in LinkBuilder MSH

1H (First Half) 1996
   LinkSwitch Token Ring/ATM switch

-0- ATM Switching Family

The CELLplex 7000 is designed for building and campus backbone installations as well as high performance workgroups. It can interconnect LinkSwitch 2700 workgroup switches or CELLplex 7200 departmental switches, and can also attach directly to high-performance end systems to create a seamless Ethernet/ATM network.

CELLplex 7000 can greatly increase the aggregate bandwidth of a backbone, using broadband standard interfaces (155 Mbps OC-3 SONET and DS3) to collapsed backbone devices such as LANplex intelligent switching hubs or NETBuilder high performance multiprotocol routers, as well as to other CELLplex 7000 switches to form the campus ATM backbone.

Now shipping, the CELLplex 7000 features a 16 x 16 core ATM switch and four slots for hot swappable interface cards with four ports per card. A base configuration with a four-port card is priced at $21,400. A 16-port configuration is priced at $39,600, less than $2,500 per ATM port.

Part of 3Com's SuperStack family, the LinkSwitch 2700 is a unique Ethernet/ATM workgroup switch that delivers plug-and-play Ethernet switching, with a connection to ATM at a low entry price. It offers 12 switched 10BaseT ports and a switched ATM interface with several modular physical layer options. LAN switching supports selectable cut-through or store-and forward modes, and operates with or without the ATM interface. 3Com plans to ship the LinkSwitch 2700 with standard LAN emulation in May 1995. The LinkSwitch 2700 is priced at $7,200 without the ATM module and $8,400 with ATM module.

The CELLplex 7200 Ethernet/ATM departmental switch combines features and benefits of the CELLplex 7000 and LinkSwitch 2700 to provide two levels of switching in a single platform. In high-performance departmental applications, the CELLplex 7200 provides dedicated Ethernet connections to the end systems, and improves server performance through high-speed ATM interfaces. 3Com plans to ship the CELLplex 7200 in the second half of 1995.

Additional ATM Plans

3Com plans to ship an ATM SBus adapter in Q2 1995, and a PCI bus adapter in the second half of the year. The adapters will support 155 Mbps SONET multimode fiber, UNI 3.0 and 3.1, AAL 5 in hardware, and LAN emulation services.

Completing its plan to deliver standards-based ATM solutions, 3Com intends to ship ATM UNI connections for the LANplex 2000 and 6000 switching hubs, an ATM UNI module for NETBuilder II, and LAN-ATM switching for LinkBuilder MSH in the second half of 1995, plus LinkSwitch Token Ring-ATM switching in the first half of 1996.

3Com's ATM products will be available through the company's worldwide distribution channels, including VARs, resellers, distributors and direct sales. For information contact 3Com at 1-800-NET-3COM. Additional pricing details will be announced closer to shipping dates.

Founded in 1979, 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ:COMS) pioneered the data networking industry. Today 3Com offers customers a broad range of ISO 9000-compliant global data networking solutions that include 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.

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Note to Editors: 3Com, LANplex, LinkBuilder, NETBuilder and NETBuilder II are registered trademarks, and CELLplex, LinkSwitch, MSH, SuperStack and ZipChip are trademarks of 3Com Corporation. All other trademarks belong to their respective organizations,

CONTACT: 3Com Public Relations

Donna Stein, 408/764-5960