AirSoft's Powerburst Integral Part of New CiscoRemote Suite.

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 20, 1995--AirSoft, Inc., announced today that Cisco Systems, Inc., will be including AirSoft's Powerburst remote node acceleration software as part of its new CiscoRemote Windows remote access client solution announced today.

By incorporating Powerburst into CiscoRemote, Cisco's remote access customers will be able to gain faster, more efficient access to remote network applications no matter what type of connection they are using.

CiscoRemote is Cisco Systems, Inc.'s new suite of remote access client software. In addition to the Powerburst remote node accelerator, CiscoRemote includes a fully integrated, high-performance VxD TCP/IP protocol stack, complete with a PPP/SLIP module protocol stack, remote control and remote node software, an Internet browser and several communication utilities.

CiscoRemote provides seamless access to enterprise networks or the Internet either as a standalone solution or as a complement to Cisco's Access Server technology.

Cisco has included Powerburst in order to ensure that CiscoRemote users enjoy the fastest response time possible. On average, Powerburst doubles the speed of remote network access and, with some applications, increase performance by as much as 10 times over any remote link. With Powerburst, CiscoRemote users can access electronic mail, network databases, spreadsheets and other network-based data with performance that approaches that of the LAN.

"The biggest challenge facing remote network users today is response time," said Dale Jantzen, senior product line manager, Cisco Access Servers, for the company's Access Business Unit. "When we learned about Powerburst, we decided it was the ideal remote access acceleration solution to complement CiscoRemote to improve response time for everyday applications such as database access and event e-mail."

Powerburst consists of two software components: the "Client," a Windows-based software program which is installed on the remote workstation, and the "Agent," a DOS-based program which is installed on a dedicated machine that interfaces with the file server.

Operating in tandem, the Powerburst Client and Agent apply AirSoft's advanced patent-pending caching algorithms to eliminate redundant file system calls, thus minimizing inefficiencies inherent in network communications over remote node connections.

The key is Powerburst is that it eliminates much of the latency inherent with file-system-based network applications by minimizing the amount of network traffic generated between the applications and file server.

Powerburst is not a data compression system like those used with modems or routers. Instead, Powerburst is designed to specifically address the latency problems associated with dial-up network connections and can increase performance beyond levels that can be achieved by simply upgrading to a faster connection.

In fact, the Powerburst caching algorithms take advantage of telecommunications data compression schemes and can deliver the same performance improvements whether users are connected via a 9600-baud link, 28.8 Kbps link, or ISDN connections.

"This relationship with Cisco Systems allows us to expand the market for Powerburst," added Gary Krall, Vice President of Marketing for AirSoft.

"We believe that by incorporating Powerburst, CiscoRemote will be an ideal remote access application for users who need to access e-mail, scheduling software, databases, and other applications using almost any transport. Powerburst is the perfect complement to CiscoRemote since it improves performance for virtually any file system-based network application."

The Powerburst Agent software runs on a 486-class machine or higher running MS-DOS 5.0 or later, although a Pentium machine is recommended. It supports both NetWare 3.x/4.x and Windows NT. The Agent machine needs at least 1 MB of disk space for program files.

The Powerburst Client will run on any 386 workstation with 2 MB of hard disk space for program files and another 8 MB for data caching.

Powerburst Agent software is available for $995 from AirSoft. Powerburst Agent software is also available directly from Cisco to support CiscoRemote customers. Each Agent is capable of supporting up to 64 simultaneous users.

Powerburst Client software is available in multi-user licenses starting at $645 for a 5-user pack and ranging to $245,000 for 5,000-user license from AirSoft. CiscoRemote, expected to ship worldwide in December, is available to order immediately from Cisco for $199 for a single user.

AirSoft, Inc., has headquarters at 20833 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 200, Cupertino, CA 95014; telephone [phone]; FAX: [phone]; http://www.airsoft.com.

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