Foundry Networks Enters Core Internet Router Market with Ultra-High Performing IP Core Router.

Business Editors/High-tech Writers

ComNet 2000 - Booth No. 4002

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2000

NetIron 400/800 LAN/WAN capabilities for Internet Service

Providers to be announced at ComNet Booth No. 4002

Foundry Networks(TM), Inc. (Nasdaq: FDRY) today announced the rollout of NetIron400(TM) and NetIron800(TM), one of the industry's highest performing Internet core routers.

The NetIron 400/800 is specifically designed to satisfy the exploding bandwidth requirements of growth-oriented Web hosting firms and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) today, and in the future. NetIron 400/800 products are currently installed or in acceptance testing with some of the world's leading service providers, including Exodus and Telocity.

&uot;The explosive growth and use of the Internet is creating an enormous desire for ultra-high performance, reliable and scalable data communications devices,&uot; said Jim McInerney, Executive Vice President of Engineering for Exodus, a leader in complex Internet hosting and managed services. &uot;We have done extensive evaluation of several high-speed routers and selected Foundry's NetIron800 due to its excellent performance, reliability and price,&uot; continued McInerney.

Unmatched Throughput

Delivering up to 256 Gbps of superior switching capacity, the NetIron800 8-slot (NI800) and NetIron400 4-slot (NI400) modular chassis alleviates performance bottlenecks with wire-speed IP routing. Built upon Foundry's unique IronCore(TM) architecture and IronWare(TM) software platform, NetIron 400/800 reliably delivers up to 90 million packets per second (Mpps) even under the heaviest of Internet traffic loads.

IronClad Flexibility

NetIron 400/800 offers a full range of cost-effective, high-speed, high-density, and high-performance LAN/MAN/WAN switch modules, and provides support ranging from 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet to OC-48c/STM-16 with scalability to OC-192c/STM-64 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. All fiber WAN switch modules provide Short (2Km), Medium (15-20Km) and Long (20-70Km) reach distances, enabling the ISP or enterprise customer to design a networking topology applicable to their current and future needs. Foundry offers a cost efficient way to incrementally add Gigabit Ethernet to the Internet core - simply add the appropriate low cost GBIC into the management module. In addition, NetIron 400/800 supports 150km links for building Gigabit Ethernet MANs.

&uot;Many ISPs have a great desire to build continuously available, high performance POPs and GigaPOPs by integrating the LAN and WAN core infrastructures into a single device.&uot; said Todd Hanson, Senior Analyst for Dataquest. &uot;In addition, ISPs will continually seek solutions that leverage the use of long haul optics, which support distances up to 150km, to build super fast LAN/MAN/WAN POPs,&uot; continued Mr. Hanson.

Available in both a full size (12 rack units) and compact (5 rack units) modular chassis, the NetIron 400/800 Internet core router is one of the most compact and highest-performing IP routing platform for private networks, metropolitan area networks, hosting sites, public networks, and core backbones in the market today. Interchangeable switch modules, management modules, and power supplies between the two chassis models means NetIron 400/800 provides flexibility for long-term expansive networking growth. As well, NetIron 400/800 does not limit network designs with reserved interface slots. Place any module, including a redundant management module, in any open slot without restriction.

IronClad Management Modules

NetIron 400/800 offers multipurpose management modules, orderable with or without GBIC-based LAN expansion ports. Both the NetIron400 and NetIron800 include extended flash memory, two PCMCIA type II card slots, support for out of band network management, and a powerful management and route processor. NetIron 400/800 provides full route management redundancy when configured with multiple redundant management modules.

IronCore Architecture

The IronCore architecture consists of a parallel crosspoint switch fabric backplane and switch modules that equally distribute IP processing load. This establishes reliable performance and avoids head-of-line blocking, common to many of today's high-speed switching routers. Each switch module provides 32 Gbps of switching capacity and the parallel crosspoint switch fabric contributes 128 Gbps of packet switching throughput. Joined together through 16 Gbps full duplex data paths, module-to-module packet forwarding occurs with minimal latency for all traffic flows.

Each switch module also handles the replication of multicast traffic in hardware providing a high level of performance. Support for RIP, OSPF and BGP4 along with PIM-SM, PIM-DM, DVMRP and hardware-based IP multicast provides seamless interoperability with currently installed networks.

Access Control Lists (ACL) enable users to control network traffic and limit network access. When deployed by other vendors, ACL usage significantly impacts device performance, but Foundry supports a full ACL implementation while maintaining wire-speed packet forwarding.

Internet Routing - IronWare Software

NetIron 400/800 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.

&uot;We have deployed Foundry's NetIron800 in our network core and established BGP4 peering relationships with our partners,&uot; said Andrew Robinson VP of Operations for Telocity, a nationwide provider of broadband services and applications designed for the residential market. &uot;We have been very impressed with the scalability, robustness, features and interoperability of the Foundry BGP4 implementation,&uot; continued Robinson.

Foundry has built into each protocol the Internet grade scalability required by Internet core routers, including support for millions of BGP4 Routes and hundreds of Peers. Foundry plans to continue to add standard protocol support to the NetIron 400/800 platform and 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 throughout 2000.

&uot;Foundry was the first to ship high performance, low cost Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet switching routers for the LAN and has expanded into the Layer 4-7 Internet Traffic Management systems market to build a complete high availability E-commerce solution. With the introduction of NetIron 400/800, Foundry is leveraging its Internet edge routing expertise to deliver higher performing core platforms and is well positioned as the end-to-end switching solutions provider for the LAN, MAN and WAN,&uot; said Bobby Johnson, President and CEO of Foundry Networks.

Pricing and Availability

The NetIron 400/800 Internet router is available in late March directly from Foundry Networks. The basic list price for the 4-slot NetIron400 starts at $27,995 with pricing for the 8-slot NetIron800 starting at $33,995. Both include the new Redundant Management IV module with four unpopulated GBICs, dual PCMCIA slot type II cards, and the choice of either AC or DC power supply options. OC-3/STM-1 and OC-12/STM-3 Packet Over SONET (POS) modules are available for immediate delivery with OC-48/STM-16 POS and OC-3/DS-3 ATM modules available later in the year.

About Foundry Networks

Foundry Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: FDRY) is a leader in high performance end-to-end switching solutions including Internet routers, Layer 3 switches and Internet Traffic Management systems for Layer 4-7 switching. Foundry products are installed in the world's largest ISPs including AOL (NYSE: AOL), MindSpring (Nasdaq: MSPG), AT& WorldNet, MSN, and Cable &Wireless (NYSE: CWP). Foundry products are also installed in large enterprise, entertainment, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies as well as search engines, 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.

Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, continued acceptance and development of Foundry's existing and new products, intense competition in the networking market, Foundry's dependence on a few large customers including Hewlett Packard, the difficulty of predicting future industry standards, Foundry's dependence upon third-party suppliers, Foundry's ability to protect intellectual property rights and to defend intellectual property claims by competitors and other risks detailed in Foundry's Registration Statement on Form S-1 and in other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Note to Editors: Foundry Networks, NetIron 400/800, IronWare and IronCore are trademarks of Foundry Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective holders.