3Com delivers another industry first SNA solution; 3Com leadership in APPN technology strengthened with delivery of industry first APPN Dependent LU Requester (DLUR) in a multiprotocol router.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 1995--3Com Corporation (NASDAQ:COMS), the world's fastest-growing network systems vendor, today became the first networking vendor to offer customers a multiprotocol router solution incorporating APPN (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) Dependent LU Requester (DLUR) in a multiprotocol routing environment. 3Com is the first networking vendor to provide this capability to customers who are seeking to migrate their subarea networks to IBM's strategic APPN. With this new solution, 3Com is providing the functionality which will allow customers to move forward with IBM's strategic direction of migrating legacy SNA subarea networks toward APPN. This feature is offered in the company's NETBuilder 8.2 software release and is currently available.

"We are delighted that 3Com, the first company to license IBM's DLUR function for APPN, is now providing this capability to customers," said Rick McGee, director of Internetworking, IBM Networking Hardware Division. "As SNA networks gain the benefits of APPN dynamics and simplicity, they will need the DLUR function to exploit the existing infrastructure and applications."

Industry Firsts In IBM Networking

This announcement furthers 3Com's leading role in helping customers integrate legacy SNA and multiprotocol networks. This is evidenced by 3Com being the first vendor besides IBM to announce such "first to market" connectivity solutions as:

- First company to license APPN technology from IBM - First commercially available APPN-Network Node (APPN-NN)

implementation - First APPN-NN over Frame Relay implementation

APPN is a key component within 3Com's High Performance Scalable Networking (HPSN) architecture. HPSN is 3Com's product and technology blueprint for building and managing data networks, providing a framework for customers to build scalable networks.

"Because 3Com understands SNA internetworking environments and the critical need to migrate legacy traffic to APPN networks, we were able to deliver yet another first-to-market milestone," said Jeff Thermond, Vice President and General Manager of the Network Systems Division at 3Com. "3Com's APPN DLUR will enable the approximately 10 million legacy SNA users to migrate their IBM based networks into an APPN network seamlessly and consistently with IBM's product direction in a manner which provides users with less product obsolescence and more cost savings."

DLUR Offers Easy to Follow Migration Path

DLUR provides the capability for APPN to support legacy SNA 3270 based applications. Until now, APPN has been limited to supporting only the latest generation of client/server SNA applications, which have been based on APPC (Advanced Program-to-Program Communication) and LU 6.2. Developed through the AIW (APPN Implementer's Workshop), DLUR provides an industry standard solution for APPN networks to natively carry dependent LU traffic between IBM mainframes and peripheral devices such as printers, terminals, point-of-sale devices, and automatic teller machines. With DLUR now in the NETBuilder II family of routers, customers can build APPN networks that meet their entire SNA networking needs.

Through its implementation of DLUR in the NETBuilder II product line, 3Com now offers two unique and significant capabilities to the internetworking industry. As the only vendor to provide downstream PU support, 3Com provides the ability for SNA devices of all types to be connected to the APPN network and access legacy applications without the need for costly equipment upgrades and reconfiguration. In addition, as the only implementation of APPN DLUR in a multiprotocol router, the NETBuilder II provides the industry's only solution for integrating legacy SNA devices and applications into a single physical network supporting both native SNA and native non-SNA protocols.

IBM Networking Made Simple With 3Com Solutions

This new DLUR routing feature compliments 3Com's previously announced IBM connectivity options which include a wide range of connectivity solutions. Components of 3Com's IBM Connectivity product set include:

- Data Link Switching (DLSw) - SNA Boundary Routing Architecture - APPN - RFC 1490 (SNA over Frame Relay)

3Com Corporation has helped more than 22 million people gain access to critical information through high speed networks. Designed to serve large enterprises, small offices and homes, 3Com products provide a scalable architecture to meet the immediate and long-term connectivity needs of today's user. With research and development on three continents, 3Com is one of the data networking industry's largest and fastest growing companies. The company's innovative manufacturing, marketing, sales and support simplify communication, optimize network reliability and protect customer investments.

For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at: http://www.3Com.com. -0- Note to editors: For more information on the 3Com solution set for IBM networking please see the attached addendum. 3Com, NETBuilder, NETBuilder II, and Boundary Routing are registered trademarks of 3Com Corporation. IBM, APPN, SNA, and DLUR are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks belong to their respective organizations.

CONTACT: 3Com Public Relations 

Rich Black, 408/764-8486

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The Ardell Group

Mike Gormally, 619/792-2937