Breakthrough LAN switch processor promises fast relief for congested local area networks; high bandwidth capacity, full-featured, LAN switches now possible at affordable prices.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 6, 1996--MMC Networks Inc. (MMC) today announced the availability of its newest product, which is expected to enable local area network (LAN) equipment manufacturers to offer a new generation of high-bandwidth capacity, feature-rich Fast Ethernet and Ethernet switches at affordable prices.

Being introduced today is MMC's PS1000, the world's first fully-integrated high-bandwidth capacity Fast Ethernet/Ethernet Switch Processor. According to Prabhat K. ("PK") Dubey, president and chief executive officer of MMC, the new processor will have immediate and widespread application in meeting the exploding demand in the workplace for high bandwidth connectivity.

"This demand," said Dubey, "comes from two merging tidal waves, making accessing and sharing information via the computer a must to the smallest of organizations and even to the home: first is the rapidly expanding numbers and performance of personal computers and workstations, and the second is the explosion of the Internet."

"Routine business traffic," explained Dubey, "is shifting from short e-mail messages and occasional file transfers to the transfer of many files rich in multimedia content. The demand for high bandwidth connectivity can no longer be met by the traditional shared media local area networks (LAN) such as Ethernet and token ring, giving rise to switch-based networks and to faster networking schemes such as Fast Ethernet and ATM."

Sweet and Sour 

Unlike traditional LANs which allow only one message to go through at any one time, LAN switches provide concurrent connections between multiple users on the network. The promise of instant relief to congested networks has made network switches the darling of the networking industry. In a recent industry report, Montgomery Securities predicts the number of switched LAN ports to grow from 1.6 million today to 76 million by 1999 -- a compound annual growth rate of 183 percent.

Network managers, however, are finding out that the current first generation of LAN switches has brought with it a different set of problems. Simultaneous multiple connection means that the switch now handles a vastly larger amount of traffic, and network traffic -- previously observable simply by "eavesdropping" on the shared media line -- becomes invisible in a switch.

This has made performance analysis and troubleshooting much more difficult. In addition, bottlenecks still remain -- for example when a number of clients attempt to simultaneously access a single file server or access the corporate backbone network.

And, on the other side of the fence, LAN switch manufacturers are struggling to meet the demand for the switch bandwidth capacity. To be "non-blocking" the switch bandwidth capacity must be the aggregate of all of the 10-Mbps "client" nodes, plus all of the 100-Mbps "server" nodes, plus the uplink(s) to the corporate backbone (typically ATM at 155-Mbps full duplex).

This requirement soon reaches into the gigabits per second range. The current generation of LAN switches does not meet this need. "What is needed," said MMC's Dubey, "is a core technology to enable round two in LAN switch evolution. This is where we come in."

ViX Technology and the Ethernet Switch

MMC Networks is a networks systems-on-a-chip company which specializes in providing fully-integrated switch "engines" -- called "switch processors" -- to LAN equipment manufacturers. Dubey likens the integrated switch processor to the now-ubiquitous microprocessor forming the heart of every PC and workstation.

"Think of it as the enabling technology for the second round of network switches." That generation, said Dubey, will feature sophisticated, high-bandwidth capacity switches, with dozens to hundreds of ports. Such processors are only now possible because of the company's ViX Technology. ViX refers to MMC's novel, patented switch architecture which lends itself to scaleable, high bandwidth capacity switch architectures.

As a case in point, MMC announced last summer a complete ATM switch engine -- the ATMS2000 -- in the form of four low-cost integrated circuits. ATM refers to "Asynchronous Transfer Mode," the technology commonly expected to predominate in public and private networks in the coming decades. The ATMS2000 has already been designed into Cisco Systems' Lightstream 1010 ATM switch, as well as in over 15 other designs worldwide.

MMC's PS1000 Fast Ethernet/Ethernet Switch Processor, announced today, is a feature-rich, high-bandwidth capacity Fast Ethernet/Ethernet switch engine with ATM uplinks.

"There are already over 100 manufacturers of Ethernet switches today," reported Dubey. "Our new product will enable each of these companies to create next-generation, high-bandwidth switches with a host of competitive features, too expensive to be implemented any other way."

The PS1000 Fast Ethernet/Ethernet Switch Processor

MMC Network's PS1000 Fast Ethernet/Ethernet Switch Processor implements the complete core functionality of a high performance Fast Ethernet/Ethernet switch engine, optimized for both workgroup and LAN backbone applications.

The processor is based upon the company's patented ViX Technology. The four-chip set offers the industry's first low-cost, high-integration solution to Ethernet switch design -- supporting scaleable port densities from eight to 128 Ethernet 10-Mbps ports, up to 16 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet ports, and an integrated, seamless ATM uplink.

Total switch capacity is 4-Gbps operating with a mere 33-MHz clock. In addition, it is designed to allow manufacturers a high degree of end-product differentiation by permitting them to implement high-value-added features at low costs.

Value-Added Features

Included in the design of the PS1000 is support for advanced management features such as virtual LANs (VLAN), remote monitoring (RMON) and Spanning Tree.

In addition, the switch processor has a feature called ViXStack which permits manufacturers to offer switches stackable up to four units. Ports are programmable to either 10- or 100-Mbps, half- or full-duplex. A seamless ATM uplink for connecting to ATM backbones is built in.

The PS1000 Fast Ethernet/Ethernet Switch Engine chip set consists of four chips: -0-

1) PS1001: Queue Management Unit (QMU)

2) PS1002: Ethernet Interface Unit (EIU)

3) PS1003: Fast Ethernet Interface (FEIU)

4) PS1004: ATM Uplink/CPU Interface Unit (ACU) -0-

MMC's customers will be able to build feature-rich, high capacity, scaleable 10/100 Ethernet switches at a small fraction of today's costs. PS1000 component cost for a 32 10-Mbps port switch is $16.40 per port; for a 16 100-Mbps port switch is $52.50 per port.

MMC Networks Inc. is a privately held network systems-on-a-chip company, with headquarters in Santa Clara. MMC has developed a breakthrough switching technology, ViX, which is allowing equipment manufacturers to implement high-bandwidth capacity, fully-featured ATM and LAN switches at low-cost.

The company offers several chip sets based on this architecture for ATM and LAN switches which have, to date, been designed in by over 20 companies worldwide. The company has received venture financing from Institutional Venture Partners, U.S. Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, and JAFCO. -0-

Note to Editors: All trademarks and registered trademarks are those of their respective holders. For product information, contact MMC Networks Inc. at 408/653-1810.

CONTACT: Roeder-Johnson Corp.

Abigail Johnson, 415/802-1850

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Mike Brogan, 415/802-1850

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