Foundry Networks Announces NetIron 1500 -- The Industry's Highest Performing Internet Backbone Router.

Business/High-Tech Editors

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2000

Foundry Networks(TM), Inc. (NASDAQ:FDRY), announced today the NetIron(TM)1500 Internet backbone router. As an expansion to the recently announced NetIron400 and NetIron800 Internet router products, the groundbreaking NetIron1500 15-slot modular chassis scales to deliver a massive 480 Gigabits per second (Gbps) of total switching capacity and up to 172 Million packets per second (Mpps) forwarding performance within a single system -- giving service providers the ability to outpace ever-increasing Internet traffic demands by scaling their IP infrastructure backbones to new levels.

"Our customers require the delivery of wire-speed Internet access, and as their demand for bandwidth grows, we must have networking infrastructures that scale. With Foundry's Internet router products, we have the ability to incrementally add throughput by simply deploying more modules," said Todd Vernon, CTO for Evoke, a leading internet communications service provider.

Based on Foundry's customer proven IronCore(TM) ASIC designs, which have been shipping for the past 21 months, the NetIron1500 is a high density carrier class Internet backbone router which offers customers the ability to deploy a full spectrum of broadband WAN network interfaces ranging from OC-192c/STM-64, OC-48c/STM-16, OC-12c/STM-4, OC3c/STM-1, ATM to DS3. It also supports LAN interfaces ranging from 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet. All these technologies will be available on Foundry products without costly backplane upgrades or the disruption normally caused by swapping out or replacing existing interface modules or supervisor modules. The NetIron1500 offers software and hardware redundancy and high-availability through a fully distributed switching architecture with redundant management and routing processor modules, SONET Automatic Protection Switching, N+1 load-sharing and hot swappable AC and DC power supply options and hot swappable interface modules. NetIron1500 supports the IETF Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) as well as the Foundry Standby Routing Protocol (FSRP) -- providing for full router fault tolerance.

NetIron1500 offers multipurpose management modules, available with or without GBIC-based Gigabit Ethernet ports. Both management module options include 512 Mbytes of extended flash memory, two PCMCIA type II card slots, support for out-of-band network management, and the industry's most powerful management and routing processor. NetIron1500 provides full route management redundancy when configured with redundant management modules.

The NetIron1500 Internet backbone router supports IronWare(TM), Foundry's Internet strength routing and control software, making it seamlessly compatible with NetIron400 and NetIron800 Internet routers, as well as the complete line of Foundry products. The NetIron1500 running IronWare offers a robust suite of mature, standards-based routing protocols that scale in relation to the growing traffic flows found in the core of the Internet. Foundry has built into each protocol the Internet grade scalability required by the most demanding Internet Service Providers, including support for millions of BGP4 routes and hundreds of peers. Foundry will continue adding standard protocol support to the NetIron1500 platform and has plans to deliver IS-IS (Intermediate System to Intermediate System), MBGP (Multicast Border Gateway Protocol), MSDP (Multicast Source Discovery Protocol) and MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) in regular software releases through out 2000.

"Back in 1997, Foundry was the first to build the highest performing and lowest cost Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet switching routers for the LAN based on a very unique architecture that had a lot of extensible abilities. As the demand for high performance networking products heats to white-hot levels, we are continuing to reveal more and more of our system's inherent capacity and our architecture's proficiency," said Bobby Johnson, President and CEO of Foundry Networks. "This product is a credit to our experienced engineering and ASIC design team, who have allowed us to create products for the Internet backbone, as well as expand into the Layer 4-7 Internet Traffic Management systems market to build the most complete set of high-availability products. With the introduction of NetIron1500, Foundry leverages its Internet routing expertise to deliver the highest performing core platforms and is well positioned as the end-to-end switching solutions provider of choice for the LAN, MAN and WAN. The market has still not seen the tremendous power and scalability that a fully distributed switching system can deliver," Johnson concluded.

Foundry Also Announces a Price Reduction on Packet Over SONET Modules

In addition, Foundry announced up to 40% price reduction on Packet Over SONET/SDH interfaces for the entire router product family, including 2 port OC-48c/STM-16, 2 and 4 port OC-12c/STM-4, and 2 and 4 port OC3c/STM-1 modules. All products work seamlessly to expand chassis capacity and create an open and fully available multi-service core network, which includes connectivity to LAN networking services running Gigabit Ethernet (1000Base-T, 1000Base-SX, 1000Base-LX, and 1000Base-LongHaul up to 150 Km), 10/100Base-TX, and 100Base-FX.

"Continued price pressure opens up a number of different opportunities both to the customer -- through reduced infrastructure costs, and to vendors directly -- allowing them to compete effectively in the high growth Internet backbone infrastructure market," said Eric Thompson, Principal Analyst for Gartner Group.

Pricing and Availability

The NetIron1500 15-slot modular Internet router is available this summer. The basic list price for the NI1500 model is $34,495 and the NI1500-4 model is $43,995. While both models include the new Redundant Management IV module, only the NI1500-4 includes four GBIC slots. Both chassis models include 512 Mbytes of flash memory, an 80 Mbyte PCMCIA flash card, and dual PCMCIA slot type II card slots and ship with AC power. Both also support the choice of either AC or DC power supply options. OC-3c/STM-1, and OC-12c/STM-4 Packet Over SONET/SDH modules are available for immediate delivery. The OC-48c/STM-16 POS module will be available in May. The OC-3c/STM-1 ATM and DS3 modules will be available in the second half of 2000.

Foundry Networks' Packet Over SONET/SDH Price Reductions are detailed below:

------------------------------ ----------------------------------
         PoS Module                  Foundry Pricing (US$)
============================== ==================================
       2-port OC-3c MM                    $14,995.00
------------------------------ ----------------------------------
       2-port OC-3c IR                    $17,995.00
------------------------------ ----------------------------------
       2-port OC-3c LR                    $21,995.00
------------------------------ ----------------------------------
       4-port OC-3c MM                    $24,995.00
------------------------------ ----------------------------------
       4-port OC-3c IR                    $29,995.00
------------------------------ ----------------------------------
       4-port OC-3c LR                    $37,995.00
------------------------------ ----------------------------------
      2-port OC-12c MM                    $34,995.00
------------------------------ ----------------------------------
      2-port OC-12c IR                    $42,995.00
------------------------------ ----------------------------------
      2-port OC-48c SR                    $54,995.00
------------------------------ ----------------------------------
      2-port OC-48c IR                    $64,995.00
------------------------------ ----------------------------------

Key: MM=Multimode, IR=Intermediate Reach, LR=Long Reach, SR=Short
Range

About Foundry Networks

Foundry Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FDRY) is a leader in high performance end-to-end switching and routing solutions including Internet routers, Layer 2/3 switches and Internet Traffic Management switches. Foundry products are installed in the world's largest ISPs including AOL (NYSE: AOL), EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), AT&T WorldNet, MSN, and Cable & Wireless (NYSE: CWP). Foundry products are also installed in large enterprises, entertainment, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies as well as e-commerce sites, universities and government organizations. Some of these customers include: The University of Washington, LucasFilm, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), LTV Steel (NYSE: LTV), Incyte Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INCY), U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy, NASA and NIH. For more information about the company and its products, call 1.888.TURBO.LAN or visit our web site at www.foundrynetworks.com.

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by this section. These forward-looking statements include anticipated support and feature additions to Foundry products and expected availability and prices of future products. The results expected by these statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including continued acceptance of Foundry's current products in general, Foundry's ability to introduce new and superior products and predict future industry standards, the quality of new products offered by Foundry's competitors in the intensely competitive networking market, and Foundry's ability to attract and retain skilled employees in an intensively competitive hiring market. Actual results may differ materially due to these and other factors. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties described from time to time in Foundry's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see the Risk Factors described in Foundry's final Prospectus dated September 27, 1999 for its initial public offering as well as its most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K. Foundry assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

Foundry Networks, NetIron, IronWare and IronCore are trademarks of Foundry Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective holders.