Circadiant Systems Announces Availability of its Automated, Consolidated, Intelligent Optical Testing Platform with 10 Gigabit Ethernet Capability.

Business/Technology Editors

ALLENTOWN, Penn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2002

Company Unveils New Class of Test Equipment

Purpose-Built for Optical Components and Equipment

Circadiant Systems, Inc., the company making optical testing simple, today announced availability of its automated, consolidated and intelligent testing system optimized for 10 Gb/s networks. The A3306 10 Gb/s Optical Standards Tester is a compact testing system enabling optical equipment and component makers to significantly reduce their product development cycles and manufacturing costs while accelerating the time-to-market for their optical networking solutions.

By introducing a tri-rate testing platform that is optimized for 10 Gb/s networks, Circadiant has deployed a productivity tool enabling optical equipment and component vendors to test SONET/SDH, 10 gigabit Ethernet local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) and OTN/FEC-based solutions. The A3306 10 Gb/s Optical Standards Tester, coupled with the A3303 2.5 Gb/s Tester, announced in September 2001, is the first automated, consolidated and intelligent optical testing system that performs the key tests made everyday by R&D and manufacturing organizations in a single box.

"As optical speeds increase and systems become more complex, test equipment must keep pace so products can continue to come to market in a timely fashion," said Tom Hausken, director, Optical Communications Components, Strategies Unlimited. "Circadiant's decision to, in effect, put multiple instruments into a single box to effectively test layers 1, 2 and 3 promises to simplify the overall control of test parameters while addressing the specific needs of 10 Gb/s networks."

In the A3306 10 Gb/s Optical Standards Tester, Circadiant has incorporated a tri-rate system at 9.9, 10.3 and 10.7 Gb/s that analyzes and tests network elements at a variety of transmission speeds. The A3306 also allows users to control devices, including oscilloscopes and ovens, to make pass/fail measurements from its easy-to-use, customized interface. Circadiant has also carried over the functionality and consolidation features of the A3303 and combined the many instruments needed for effectively and efficiently testing layers 1, 2 and 3 including bit error rate testers (BERT), attenuators, power meters, an EDFA, couplers, splitters, protocol analyzers, optical filters and optical sources, enabling users to conduct tests with unprecedented ease, while decreasing their overall product development costs.

"Since launching our A3300 product family last year, we have gained significant traction in the industry and have received accolades from a number of established optical equipment and component makers," said Dr. John French, president and CEO, Circadiant. "With the addition of the 10 Gb/s product to our product line, we are anticipating even greater penetration of our core market over the next several months."

The A3306 10 Gb/s Optical Standards Tester is expected to become generally available in June 2002. Pricing for the 10 Gb/s unit starts at $168,000.

About Circadiant Systems, Inc.

Founded and staffed by a team of distinguished engineers with extensive experience in optical components, networks, protocols and testing and a rich pedigree at Bell Labs, Circadiant Systems (www.circadiant.com) is a privately held venture-funded company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company provides optical component and network equipment makers with award-winning, purpose-built, intelligent testing systems that significantly reduce development and manufacturing costs while accelerating the time-to-market of high-quality optical networking solutions. To that end, Circadiant Systems has introduced a new class of testing equipment that offers standardization, automation and scalability in a system purpose-built to meet the needs of the current and future optical networking market and is well positioned to capitalize on the multi-billion dollar optical testing industry.