First Gigabit Ethernet Network Connection Announced by Packet Engines Inc.SPOKANE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 21, 1997--Packet Engines Inc. today announced the company's first Gigabit Ethernet systems product. The G-NIC is a 64-bit PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). Gigabit Ethernet card designed for high-performance workstations, servers and backup systems. The product will be sold directly to early Gigabit Ethernet evaluators and will be offered to OEMs for integration with other products. "The G-NIC provides Gigabit Ethernet connections for desktop workstations, computers and servers," said Bernard Daines, Packet Engines President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. . "Supplying the G-NIC ensures that Packet Engines can provide a complete solution to evaluators and early adopters of Gigabit Ethernet technology." "This is an important first step for our company," Daines said, alluding to future plans. "The G-NIC is the first of several announcements we will make this year." Packet Engines Design Packet Engines' Spokane-based engineering staff designed the ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. used in the G-NIC. Based on the Packet Engines GMAC GMAC General Motors Acceptance Corporation GMAC Graduate Management Admission Council GMAC Give Me A Call GMAC Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee GMAC Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (Singapore) GMAC Give Me A Chance Gigabit Media Access Control design, the key ASIC is being fabricated by Packet Engines partner Symbios Logic (Fort Collins, Colo.). This arrangement is the first yield of fruit from the recently announced partnership between Packet Engines and Symbios Logic. "This is a very highly integrated solution for such new technology," said Octavio Morales, director of Product Management at Packet Engines. "By packaging the technology in one ASIC, we have achieved a low component count. This translates into high reliability and low power consumption." Morales added that production G-NICs would consume under five watts of power. Applications Packet Engines sees several applications for the new high-speed card. It will allow high-speed workstations to be connected at Gigabit rates for applications such as digital pre-press, computer-aided design and medical imaging. The card will be particularly well suited for network servers where high data rate will support backup systems, server mirroring and high traffic switches. Availability Packet Engines will unveil the G-NIC at the upcoming Networld+Interop show in Las Vegas in early May. The company will be exhibiting in booth 1123 in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center The Las Vegas Convention Center is owned and operated by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and is located in Clark County, Nevada. It is one of the largest Convention centers in the world. At the end of 2004, the center had 3. . Production G-NICs will be available immediately following the Networld+Interop show. Prior to that time the company will complete field testing and evaluation by OEM companies. Pricing has not been released. Full Gigabit-Per-Second Capability The G-NIC is a full-duplex Gigabit Ethernet controller with a 64-bit PCI bus. The controller conforms to the latest draft of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, www.ieee.org) A membership organization that includes engineers, scientists and students in electronics and allied fields. 802.3x full-duplex Ethernet standard currently under development. The G-NIC also follows the draft IEEE 802.3z Gigabit Ethernet standard. Conforming to PCI standard version 2.1, the card has a 64-bit data bus with 32-bit addressing. The bus clock speed of 33 MHz theoretically allows the card to communicate at 264 Mbytes per second, or 2.112 Gigabits per second, across a server or workstation bus. The card will be supplied with NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) A network driver interface from Microsoft. See network driver interface. NDIS - Network Device Interface Specification 3, NDIS 4, ODI and UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). drivers providing support for Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 95, Novell NetWare 3.12, NetWare 4.2, and SCO UNIX. About Gigabit Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet is the industry name for the IEEE effort to increase the speed of IEEE 802.3 networks to 1,000 Megabit-per-second (1 Gigabit-per-second) speeds. The IEEE currently has a project underway in a Task Force known as IEEE 802.3z. This effort was originated by Packet Engines and is now supported by over 100 companies through the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance. Packet Engines was a founding member of the Alliance. About Packet Engines Packet Engines Inc. is a networking systems company focused on the Gigabit Ethernet market. Headquartered in Spokane, Wash., the company was founded by Bernard Daines in 1994. Since beginning internal Gigabit Ethernet efforts in July 1995, the company has successfully pushed for an industry standards effort, built a strong development and marketing team, delivered its first Gigabit Ethernet technology and secured venture funding. By mid-1997, the company will deliver high-level Gigabit Ethernet systems products via a variety of industry partners. Packet Engines expects Gigabit Ethernet will be the backbone LAN (Local Area Network) A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. The "clients" are the user's workstations typically running Windows, although Mac and Linux clients are also used. of choice, replacing FDDI and eliminating the need for a massive industry transition to ATM. Contact http://www.packetengines.com for additional information about Packet Engines. -0- Note to Editors: ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuit; NIC (1) (Network Interface Card) See network adapter. See also InterNIC. (2) (New Internet Computer) An earlier Linux-based computer from The New Internet Computer Company (NICC), Palo Alto, CA. : Network Interface Card; IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Not to be confused with the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE (pronounced as eye-triple-e ; PCI: Peripheral Component Interconnect See PCI. (hardware) Peripheral Component Interconnect - (PCI) A standard for connecting peripherals to a personal computer, designed by Intel and released around Autumn 1993. PCI is supported by most major manufacturers including Apple Computer. ; ATM: Asynchronous Transfer Mode See ATM. (communications) Asynchronous Transfer Mode - (ATM, or "fast packet") A method for the dynamic allocation of bandwidth using a fixed-size packet (called a cell). See also ATM Forum, Wideband ATM. ATM acronyms. Indiana acronyms. ; FDDI: Fibre Distributed Data Interface. CONTACT: Packet Engines Inc. Nancy Goodspeed, 509/922-9190 |
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