Foundry Networks FastIron II and BigIron 8000 Switching Routers Recognized for Product Excellence; PC Week Chooses Foundry as One of Top 15 Companies to Watch in 1999.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 1999--Foundry Networks, a leader in Gigabit Ethernet switches, routers, server load balancers and transparent cache switches, today announced that the FastIron II has received an editor's choice award from Network Computing Magazine for Layer 3 switching.

PC Week has chosen Foundry as one of the top 15 companies to watch in 1999 and has verified the industry leading performance of Foundry's BigIron 8000 switching router with 64 Gigabit Ethernet ports.

The award from Network Computing Magazine marks the third time the publication has honored Foundry products for excellence. "Foundry Networks' FastIron II router received our Editor's Choice award for having the richest feature set and an unbeatable price," said Joel Conover, Technology Editor for Network Computing Magazine.

"The FastIron II is everything you could want in a Layer 3 switch, and more. The switch supports advanced filtering and QoS features not found in any other Layer 3 switch we've tested," continued Conover.

PC Week Labs tested the performance of Foundry's BigIron 8000 fully loaded with 64 Gigabit Ethernet ports. The BigIron 8000 blew away the closest competitors products by providing twice the performance.

"Foundry's BigIron 8000 leaves competitors in the dust," said Pankaj Chowdhry, Test Engineer for PC Week Labs. "The 8000 not only forwards packets like nobody's business, it also does so with finesse," continued Chowdhry.

Foundry Networks has also been recognized by PC Week as one of the top 15 companies to watch in 1999. The companies selected were those concentrated on online processing, electronic commerce, bandwidth enhancement, Linux development, network consulting and outsourcing services, security, and chip development.

"We are very pleased to be named one of the top 15 companies to watch in 1999 by PC Week. Our Layer 2, 3 and 4 product breadth, feature set and price/performance enable Foundry to consistently stand out from the competition in the eyes of customers and industry leading publications such as PC Week," said Bobby Johnson, President and CEO of Foundry Networks, Inc.

Foundry Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of Gigabit Ethernet switches, routers, server load balancers and transparent caching switches. The company manufactures, markets and distributes high performance solutions for enterprises and ISPs. Some of Foundry's customers include: AOL (NYSE: AOL), MindSpring (Nasdaq: MSPG), LTV Steel (NYSE: LTV) and Incyte Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: INCY). Foundry has won 15 prestigious awards for corporate and product excellence. Foundry products have also been tested by Mier Communications and The Tolly Group. For more information about the company and its products, call 888/TURBO-LAN or visit Foundry's web site at http://www.foundrynetworks.com.

Note to Editors: Product photography available upon request. Foundry Networks, FastIron and BigIron are trademarks of Foundry Networks, Inc.