Cisco Extends Industry Lead From the Backbone to the Edge with Extensions to the Cisco 12000 Series Platform; Delivers Innovation at the Network Edge with 10Gbps-enabled Solutions.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 2001

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced the introduction of two service provider products designed to enable the new high-speed service provider edge market. Building upon the flexibility of the Cisco 12000 Series modular distributed architecture, Cisco is extending the leadership of the Cisco 12000 Series in both backbone and edge applications, including a new small footprint platform and edge-optimized line cards. New to Cisco's 10Gbps portfolio is the Cisco 12404 Internet Router, the industry's smallest footprint 10Gbps router, designed to deliver high bandwidth, reliability and scalability for maximum deployment flexibility. Cisco's new Cisco 12000 Series IP Services Engine (ISE) line cards bring the Cisco 12000 Series, the industry's premier backbone router, to the edge. Cisco is demonstrating new innovation in the market by combining the power of distributed processing with line rate adaptive network processors in a high capacity 10Gbps routing platform. These solutions simplify network infrastructure and allow service providers to affordably and efficiently deliver bandwidth-intensive, value-added services such as application hosting, content hosting, and voice and video services to customers.

The Cisco 12000 Series IP Services Engine

The Cisco 12000 Series ISE enables service providers who face the challenge of building scalable, high-speed provider edge networks to deliver value-added services without increasing complexity or compromising performance and density. The Cisco 12000 Series ISE combines the power of the Cisco 12000 Series distributed system architecture, industry-leading 10Gbps Internet routing products, adaptive network processing, and innovative edge-optimized line card technology to enable the high-speed provider edge. With adaptive network processing, new features can be added into the software without compromising capacity or performance. The Cisco 12000 Series ISE is the first solution in the industry that eliminates the tradeoff between forwarding capacity and high-touch line-rate performance. It is also the only edge solution to deliver per-customer quality of service (QoS) and guaranteed priority packet delivery.

The Cisco 12000 Series ISE is optimized for high-performance edge solutions delivering the high-bandwidth services and rich features providers need to reduce costs and complexity. For investment protection and deployment flexibility, Cisco 12000 Series ISE line cards are compatible with any Cisco 12000 Series chassis, including the newest Cisco 12416, 12410, 12406, and 12404 models, which range in size from one to eight chassis per rack and support 10Gbps interfaces in every slot. The Cisco 12000 Series ISE line cards may also be deployed in Cisco 12008, 12012, and 12016 chassis, allowing service providers the option to upgrade their backbones with newer Cisco 12400 Internet Router chassis and move older chassis to the edge.

The Cisco 12000 Series ISE is the only high-speed edge solution on the market today that delivers multi-speed channelization. Other channelized interfaces support only a single access speed. The ISE enables multiple speeds as well as dynamic provisioning, allowing service providers to change customer access speeds with no customer disruption. Cisco's integrated IP services and forwarding line card technology is based on a unique architecture that delivers more features at line rate than any competitive platform. The six new Cisco 12000 Series line cards based on ISE technology include: 1-port OC-48/STM16, 4-port OC-12/STM4, and 16-port OC-3/STM1, all available in POS (Packet Over SONNET) or channelized configurations.

"Cisco once again addresses a critical service provider need by providing solutions that dramatically reduce the operational infrastructure costs while enabling a service delivery solution that drives revenue and profitability. With the introduction of ISE, Cisco has revolutionized service provider points of presence design with multi-speed channelization within optical channelized interfaces," said Frode Greisen, vice president and Chief Internet Officer, Ebone, a Pan European fiber and Internet backbone provider. "With Cisco's new edge solution, Ebone not only benefits from the performance enhancements and operational savings associated with 10Gbps networking, but we are able to also create new revenue streams for critical services such as VoIP and video that our customers demand. This kind of built-in investment protection has earned Cisco its leadership position in the networking arena, and as the vendor of choice for Ebone."

Cisco 12404 Internet Router

The fourth member of the Cisco 12400 family, the Cisco 12404 Internet Router, offers the same hardware, software, and management systems in the smallest footprint 10Gbps router in the industry. Cisco is the only vendor who delivers a portfolio of 10Gbps platforms to meet the diverse needs of service providers who are deploying 10Gbps throughout their networks and the only vendor to offer small-footprint 10Gbps routing platforms.

The Cisco 12404 is designed for providers who require deployment flexibility to support small to medium points of presence (POPs) or consolidation of IP backbone and high-speed edge interfaces. It is also ideal for enterprise customers who need carrier class scalability and reliability to deploy high-bandwidth applications to meet their goals in reducing operational costs while advancing profitable service delivery. The Cisco 12404 also delivers high-speed edge aggregation through its support of the ISE. By providing full 10Gbps uplinks, with a low cost Very Short Reach (VSR) OC-192/STM-64 option, and supporting all Cisco 12000 Series line cards, the Cisco 12404 can scale the network to meet operational requirements. Whether building public or private peering applications, delivering high-speed interconnections while preserving space and power is important to service provider profitability. The Cisco 12404 offers a power efficient 1/8th rack configuration that supports the full range of Cisco 12000 Series line cards up to OC-192c/STM-64c.

The Cisco 12000 Series 10-Port Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

The 10-port Gigabit Ethernet line card, also announced today, delivers the highest performance Ethernet connectivity solution for Cisco's 12400 family. It utilizes a single slot and offers line rate performance for Internet Data Center (IDC) and metro Ethernet aggregation.

Pricing and Availability

Pricing for the Cisco 12404 Internet Router begins at $25,000 and is available today. Pricing for the ISE line cards begins at $280,000, and the Cisco 12000 Series 10-Port Gigabit Ethernet Line Card begins at $225,000, both are also available today.

About Next Generation Internet Routing

Cisco's next generation Internet routers, the full series of Cisco 7400, 7300, 7600, 10000, 10700 and the 12000, are a family of multimillion packets-per-second (pps) IP platforms for creating service-enabled Internets. These products deliver the highest performance, availability, operational efficiency, and greatest level of service for increasing service provider profitability and reducing operational costs across a variety of applications including: broadband aggregation, managed CPE, leased line aggregation, metro IP, Internet Data Centers, edge and backbone.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com.

Note to Editors: Cisco, Cisco Systems, the Cisco Systems logo, and Cisco IOS are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.