Compex Announces First 64-Bit Fast Ethernet Card With 4 Ports.

Business & Technology Editors

ANAHEIM, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 5, 2000

Compex Inc. unveils the FL6400, the first 64-bit 4-port Fast-Ethernet adapter.

The card utilizes four Intel(R) Fast-Ethernet controllers to form four 10/100 ports. The four controllers sit on the secondary PCI Bus created by an Intel bridge chip. The FL6400's interface to the PCI bus automatically adjusts to 32- or 64-bit depending on the type of PCI bus it sits on and is PCI 2.1 compatible. Also available from Compex is the FL400, a 32-bit version of the FL6400.

Hardware Redundancy

The FL6400 can be configured as 4 individual Intel(R) 21143-based LAN controllers (4-port Mode) or 2 LAN controllers with redundant PHYs (Fail-Safe Mode). When set to the Fail-Safe Mode, the hardware will automatically switch to the backup PHY when the link signal is lost on the default PHY. The adapter runs on standard Intel(R) 21143 drivers, in both modes.

IRQ Routing Modes

The FL6400 supports two modes of Hardware Interrupt Routing. In the Interrupt-Sharing mode, a single IRQ is shared by all four LAN controllers. Although the PCI BIOS may reflect separate IRQs in the PCI configuration register, all the controllers are tied to the IRQ of Port 0. In the Interrupt-Separated mode, each LAN port is assigned separate IRQs. One has to make sure that there are enough free IRQs available on the system, to use this mode.

Port-Trunking and Port-Failover

An NT server driver supplied with each adapter allows Port-Trunking and Port-Failover. With all 4-ports connected to any 4 ports of a common Fast-Ethernet switch, the Port-Trunking feature increases the server-switch bandwidth by grouping the 4 100Base-TX Ethernet ports together to form a single-channel group, providing up to 400 Mbps bandwidth for the traffic from the server to a Fast-Ethernet switch.

This increases the bandwidth of the server to network traffic, while the bandwidth remains 100 Mbps from network to server. The Port-Trunking feature currently works only with TCP/IP protocols. If any of the 4 links to the switch fail, the Port-Failover capability routes the traffic to the remaining functional links. The Port-Failover feature supports TCP/IP, IPX and NETBEUI protocol packets.

The FL6400 has an MSRP of $315 and the FL400 is $249 and are available now through Compex's network of worldwide distributors and resellers.

Established in 1987, Compex, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Stock Exchange of Singapore-listed Powermatic Data Systems Limited (SGX:PM Data).

For sales information, contact Compex, Inc. at 4051-A E. La Palma Ave, Anaheim, CA 92807; phone: [phone]; fax: [phone]; e-mail: [e-mail]; check out the Web site at: www.cpx.com.

Direct all editorial inquiries to Nathan Abler or David Kaye at KPR, Inc.: phone: [phone]; fax: [phone]; or e-mail: [e-mail] or [e-mail].