Cisco Announces Intelligent Processor Engine for the WAN Edge.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

NetWorld+Interop 2003 Las Vegas 

Cisco Booth Number 5783

LAS VEGAS & SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 2003

Cisco 7304 NPE-G100 Powers the Widest Range of Multi-Gigabit Network

Edge Applications in a Compact, Highly Available Form Factor

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) today announced the Cisco(R) NPE-G100 Network Processing Engine, an intelligent, feature-rich processor, for the Cisco 7300 Series routers.

The processor powers the Cisco 7304 with the widest array of Internet Protocol/Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS) services necessary for customer network-edge applications for enterprises and service providers. The modular, highly available Cisco 7304 router can be deployed by enterprise customers as an Internet gateway application, or be used by service providers as a high-end customer-premise-equipment (CPE) router for managed service offerings.

UTA, Austria's leading new provider of telecommunications and e-business services, currently has an MPLS-based network powered by the Cisco 12000 Series routers at the core and the Cisco 7200 and 7600 Series routers in its point-of-presence (POP). "UTA is evaluating the Cisco 7300 Series to enhance our existing MPLS-based service offering," said Ilias Liakopoulos, head of UTA's IP and Data Network department. "The Cisco 7300 will provide us with more flexibility for handling critical applications in a multi-gigabit network environment. UTA manages more than 4 Gigabits Internet peering and upstream bandwidth and serves more than 100 MPLS-based VPN networks with 64Kbits to 155Mbits access speeds. As the access speed per side increases, we need a platform that provides more scalability in terms of throughput and handling of IP-QoS (quality-of-service)-enabled applications."

The Cisco 7304 NPE-G100 processor enables support for cutting-edge features to power network applications and services, such as integrated support for the next generation of IP networking, Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). IPv6 enables customers to prepare their networks for next-generation data, voice and video applications. The Cisco 7304 NPE-G100 also delivers support for multicast, Any Transport over MPLS (AToM); Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF)-Select, which enables network operators to provide the appearance of multiple network topologies on a single interface; and network-based application recognition (NBAR) services that allow customers to support a wide variety of connection types tightly coupled with advanced packet inspection for intelligent networking. Additionally, the NPE-G100 offers three built-in 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet ports (copper or optical) for cost-effective, integrated multi-gigabit connectivity and lower total cost of ownership.

"The Cisco 7300 is ideal for customers looking to enhance their productivity by deploying new data, voice and video applications that are made possible by the high performance and breadth of features built into the 7300 Series routers," said Lele Nardin, vice president and general manager of the Broadband Edge and Midrange Routing Business Unit at Cisco. "The Cisco 7300 is now available with two distinct processors to serve the widest range of applications enabling enterprise and service provider customers to power dedicated, high-performance services and to support the widest range of network edge applications in the industry."

This week at NetWorld+Interop 2003, Cisco Systems(R) will be demonstrating the Cisco 7304 powered by the new NPE-G100 processor with full breath of Cisco IOS(R) Software services. The live demonstration will show how real-time mission-critical business traffic can be monitored, analyzed and managed using its unique QoS features.

Pricing and Availability

The Cisco 7304 router with the NPE-G100 Network Processing Engine will be available in May and list priced at $22,000.

For more information about Cisco 7300 Series routers, please visit: www.cisco.com/go/7300.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Information on Cisco can be found at http:www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

Cisco, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo, and Cisco IOS are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks in this document are the property of their respective owners.