Cisco and Intel Take Next Step in Delivering High Quality Multimedia Over the Internet; Intel, Cisco and MCI to Demonstrate Available Technologies at Networld+Interop.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--September 9, 1996--Cisco Systems and Intel today announced they have made technological advances towards the delivery of high quality multimedia over the Internet. Cisco and Intel are making available this month technology for Internet infrastructure and PC clients that utilize IP Multicast, Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) and Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) specifications to address the bandwidth and latency issues inherent in the Internet. Cisco is providing a new version of Cisco IOS(tm) software that offers IP Multicast, RSVP and RTP. Intel is providing PC-RSVP, software that allows servers and PC clients to take advantage of technologies provided by Cisco's upgraded infrastructure to deliver high quality networked multimedia. Cisco IOS software and Intel's PC-RSVP are the underlying technologies being used in networked multimedia trials, first announced in June, currently conducted between Cisco, Intel and MCI. A demonstration of these technologies, using an RSVP-enabled beta version of Intel's ProShare(tm) Presenter and the upgraded version of Cisco IOS software will be shown between the Intel and MCI booths at the upcoming Networld+Interop show, September 18-20, 1996.

"MCI has made investments in the internetMCI (tm) OC-3 backbone and intends to further upgrade to OC-12 later this year. We see the partnership between Cisco and Intel as critical to supporting an end-to-end implementation of new applications and service quality," said Stephen VonRump, vice president of Data Marketing, MCI.

"We are pleased that the collaborative efforts of Intel, MCI and Cisco are providing tangible examples of network solutions today," said Stephen DeWitt, vice president of Enterprise Marketing, Cisco Systems. "These state-of-the-art capabilities fully illustrate the broad scope of Cisco IOS Technologies which will enable future network services."

"By jointly wazzu driving the adoption of technologies such as IP Multicast, RSVP and RTP in the networking infrastructure and in the networked personal computer, Cisco and Intel are providing the underlying technology that will support advanced Internet services and encourage faster adoption of multimedia and other bandwidth-critical uses over the Internet," said Jim B. Johnson, vice president marketing for Intel Internet and Communications Group. "Our trial efforts with Cisco and MCI will help us test advanced Internet multimedia solutions in a real-world environment."

IP Multicast, RSVP and RTP Aim to Enhance Multimedia Delivery on the Internet

IP Multicast, a feature of the TCP/IP protocol, was designed to scale so that a single transmission along a path can service hundreds or thousands of Multicast receivers. With IP Multicast a server can transmit a single multimedia stream that can be received by any PC client with viewer software. The Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) proposed specification, allows software developers to "reserve" bandwidth on the Internet to deliver real-time video and audio data streams. Without RSVP multimedia streams are subject to break up caused by congestion on the Internet. The Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) is a packet format that enables synchronization and recovery from delay variation and packet loss. RTP also provides a standard format for a variety of audio and video encodings to promote interoperability among different application software products.

Cisco IOS Software

Cisco IOS software provides a sophisticated suite of networking capabilities delivering security, reliability and investment protection in the face of network growth, change and new applications. The latest version of Cisco IOS software delivers the industry's first implementations of the RSVP protocol in the network. RSVP is one of the final technology building blocks required to deliver the end-the-end network quality of service that is needed for new multimedia functionality. Previous versions of Cisco IOS software delivered IP Multicast capability using PIM (the IETF specification for Protocol Independent Multicast) which is another fundamental multimedia technology building block. The intelligence of Cisco IOS software allows these fundamental components to work together to provide efficient communications for a wide range of network multimedia applications.

Intel's PC-RSVP and Applications

Intel's PC-RSVP software, licensed to Microsoft in August of this year for use in future applications and revisions of the Windows operating systems, is now available to Internet multimedia application software developers. Intel's PC-RSVP software runs on a user's PC (Windows NT or Windows 95 environment) and enables RSVP connections to Cisco or other routers running RSVP. The application developer then writes to the Winsock 2 API (developed through the collaboration of Intel, Microsoft and others) to make quality of service (QoS) calls. Intel is licensing this technology to accelerate the development of rich multimedia applications for the Internet.

Networld+Interop Demo to Simulate Real-Time Internet Multimedia Delivery

At Intel's booth at Networld+ Interop Intel will be demonstrating a version of ProShare Presenter that has been PC-RSVP-enabled. This version highlights the rich multimedia content hat can be delivered today on Cisco IOS software-enabled networks upgraded to deliver quality of service capabilities. Intel and MCI will also demonstrate a version of a PC-RSVP-enabled ProShare videoconferencing application running over Cisco's RSVP-enabled infrastructure at the show.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the leading global supplier of internetworking solutions for corporate intranets and the global Internet. Cisco's products -- including routers, LAN and ATM switches, dial-up access servers, and network management software -- are integrated by Cisco IOS (tm) software to link geographically dispersed LANs, WANs and IBM networks. Company news and product/service information are available at the World Wide Web site http://www.cisco.com. Cisco is headquartered in San Jose, Calif.

Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of personal computer, networking and communications products. Through innovative technologies, Intel is committed to improving the Internet experience for PC consumers. Additional information is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.

MCI, headquartered in Washington, D.C. is one of the world's largest and fastest growing diversified communications companies. With annual revenue of more than $15 billion, MCI offers consumers and businesses a broad portfolio of services, including long distance, wireless, local, paging, Internet software and access, information services, outsourcing, business software, advanced global telecommunications services and music distribution and merchandising. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Cisco IOS is a trademark of Cisco Systems. Intel is a registered trademark, and ProShare is a trademark, of Intel Corporation. Other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Cisco Systems

Marcy Schrader, 408/527-2406

or

Intel Corporation

Vicki Pierce, 503/264-6278