Force10 Networks Demonstrates Secure Line-Rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet Networking at Supercomputing 2005 Conference.

MILPITAS, Calif. -- Force10 Networks today announced that it will demonstrate the industry's first line-rate 10 Gigabit per second intrusion prevention and detection technology along with industry-leading 10 Gigabit Ethernet density this week at SC05, the premier international conference on high performance computing, networking and storage. The Force10 TeraScale E-Series family of switch/routers will provide more than 80 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports to build out the backbone for SCinet, the conference's production-quality network, while its intrusion prevention and detection technology will secure the high performance network.

"SC05 is one of the premier events to showcase the future of high performance computing and the increasing role data security will have for governments, education and businesses," said Debbie Montano, director of research and education alliances at Force10 Networks. "For the high performance community, building a 10 Gig network now also means that it must be secured at line-rate speeds."

Today, Force10 announced that it has acquired MetaNetworks Inc., a pioneer in flexible intrusion detection and prevention technology. With the acquisition of the industry's only line-rate 10 Gigabit intrusion prevention system (IPS), Force10 can both build and secure high performance networks like SCinet.

For this year's conference, Force10 is providing more than 80 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet links to build a high performance network on the show floor. As the foundation of the network, the TeraScale E1200 will process nearly all traffic on the network, which is expected to exceed 400 billion bits per second. With the TeraScale E-Series providing scalable 10 Gigabit Ethernet density at the core of SCinet, the conference's high performance network that enables real-time demonstrations, and Force10's line-rate intrusion prevention technology deterring malicious traffic, SC05 is providing its exhibitors with security that does not compromise network performance.

In addition to providing the high performance network core, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series is delivering 40 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports to exhibitor booths for demonstrations and the annual Bandwidth Challenge, which highlights and rewards the latest advances in applications that dynamically utilize multiple computing resources to solve problems. Participants in the Bandwidth Challenge use the SCinet infrastructure to demonstrate practical high performance computing applications that require a significant amount of throughput.

Several other Force10 customers are also leveraging their networks for the Bandwidth Challenge. As a key exchange point for the world's research and education networks, the StarLight optical network exchange, which leverages the Force10 TeraScale E-Series at the core of its network, will be called upon for several of the demonstration and challenge entries. Additionally, TeraGrid will use the collective bandwidth from its eight sites, six of which rely upon the TeraScale E-Series, for its entry into this year's challenge.

Among the booth demonstrations that will take place at the conference is one that leverages Internet2's nationwide Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) testbed, in which the Force10 TeraScale E-Series is deployed. In the first major demonstration of the testbed, Internet2 will, for the first time, attempt to connect four radio telescopes distributed across three continents via dynamically provisioned dedicated optical circuits for real-time analysis of radio astronomy data.

The TeraScale E-Series, which provides industry-leading Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet densities, will be on exhibit in Force10's booth (#636). Additionally, Force10 will also have on display the industry's only line-rate 10 Gigabit intrusion detection and prevention technology.

SC05 brings representatives from many technical communities together to exchange ideas, celebrate past successes and plan for the future. The conference takes place Nov. 12-18, 2005, at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle.

About Force10 Networks

Force10 Networks is the pioneer in high performance switching and routing. Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-class resiliency and massive scalability, Force10's TeraScale E-Series switch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase network availability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world's largest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10 Networks. For additional information, please visit the company's website at www.force10networks.com.

Force10, E-Series, EtherScale, TeraScale and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.