Interphase Announces Industry's Most Advanced CompactPCI Controller for Telecommunication Systems; Product Capabilities Surpass Any Controller in Its Class.

Business/Technology Editors

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2000

Interphase Corporation (Nasdaq:INPH), an international supplier of enterprise networking technologies, today announced the world's most advanced controller for telecommunication systems based on the industry-standard CompactPCI(R) bus architecture.

The new 6535 Octal T1/E1 Communications Controller is the flagship product supporting the company's initiative into fast-growing telecommunication markets including wireless communications, fast Internet Access and Advanced Intelligent Networking.

The growth in wireless networks and the popularity of the Internet has spawned a new industry of specialized "off the shelf" equipment designed to provide cost-effective enhanced services for the next-generation telecommunications infrastructure. U.S. telecommunication service providers alone will spend more than $13 billion in 2000 to expand their global communication networks. According to the Phillips Group, this expansion is expected to grow to more than $17 billion in 2002, an increase of more than 60-percent from 1999 levels.

"Network operators and service providers need to quickly develop and deliver new, competitively priced enhanced services to customers if they want to remain competitive in the rapidly changing telecommunications market," said Greg Kalush, Interphase president and CEO. "This has created a tremendous need for flexible open system communications products that deliver time-to-market advantages at an affordable price. Our new 6535 controller responds to this need with the power and scalability to enable a variety next-generation telecommunication applications. We are extremely excited to offer the industry's strongest product offering in this category."

The 6535 Octal T1/E1 Communications Controller offers superior performance with an advanced architecture that features the Motorola MPC8260 RISC CPU, the most advanced integrated communication microprocessor ever designed for the telecommunication and networking markets. With this superior processing capability and carrier-class features optimized for telecommunication applications, the 6535 is perfect for wireless telephony, high-speed Internet access and Advanced Intelligent Network equipment.

Wireless Telephony

The growth in wireless networks is driven by mobility and the increase in user devices, such as cell phones and pagers, which is driving demand for high availability telecommunication systems to support expanding wireless network requirements. Base station controllers and other wireless network equipment require high density T1/E1 line termination capability per system. With the highest number of ports per 6U CompactPCI slots available in the industry, the 6535 provides a perfect solution for next-generation wireless equipment.

High-speed Internet Access

The explosive growth of the Internet is creating a tremendous need for next-generation equipment for telecommunication carriers, cable modem operators and Internet Service Providers. The 6535, with its high channel density and high availability features, is an ideal platform for equipment suppliers designing high-speed Internet access solutions with carrier class functionality.

Advanced Intelligent Networking

The Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) is the world's largest data network and it controls traditional telephone calls, cellular calls, data communications as well as new broadband ATM services. With its support for multiple protocols, including SS7 and ATM, the 6535 is an excellent high density, high performance connectivity solution supporting AIN applications.

"We designed this product specifically for the next-generation telecommunication applications that will drive tomorrow's voice and data connectivity," said Linsey Matthews, Interphase product manager. "The initial market acceptance from our customers is very exciting, and we are pleased to add the 6535 communications controller to our robust family of connectivity products for next-generation telecommunication system."

Features that solidify the 6535's industry leading position include:

-- Up to Eight T1/E1 Interfaces - The 6535 comes equipped with

either 4 or 8 T1/E1/J1 interfaces, providing telecom OEMs and

integrators with a high density, fully channelized WAN

communications solution for connection to telecommunication

switches, gateway devices, AIN nodes, CTI systems, VOIP 

gateways or remote access multiplexers. Telecommunications and

data traffic can be simultaneously aggregated across any or

all 8 ports, allowing the 6535 to deliver as much as 400%

higher throughput than the closest competing product.

-- On-board H.110 Bus - H.110 is an industry specification that

allows developers and integrators to build robust,

interoperable hardware and software solutions for

telecommunications and data networking applications using

CompactPCI-based platforms. The addition of H.110 bus enables

the 6535 to switch telecommunication data streams directly

between peripheral modules in a CompactPCI chassis. This makes

it possible for developers to swiftly build and scale the

full-function telecommunication systems of the future.

-- Advanced ATM Capabilities - Interphase is leveraging its vast

experience as an ATM leader to offer advanced ATM capabilities

on the 6535 that include Inverse ATM Multiplexing (IMA). This

IMA functionality allows multiple T1/E1/J1s to act as a single

coherent ATM connection, offering overall greater bandwidth

for demanding applications. With IMA, applications can use the

combined bandwidth more effectively, since idle capacity on

one line can be aggregated with unused capacity on another.

The 6535 is also the only product in the industry that can

currently utilize IMA capabilities with fractional T1/E1

lines, allowing the combination of ATM and non-ATM traffic on

the same T1 or E1 span.

-- Simultaneous Multiprotocol Communications Support - In

addition to ATM, the 6535 features the industry's most

comprehensive suite of WAN and telecommunications protocol

software including Frame Relay, ISDN, X.25, SS7, HDLC and

LAPD. The ability to run multiple protocols concurrently

preserves host system slots while allowing system designers to

build high-availability systems that perform multiple

communication functions, making more efficient use of system

resources.

-- High Availability Support - The 6535 includes "carrier class"

features that are designed to meet the high availability

requirements of telecommunication systems that rarely or never

fail. Support for "hot swapping" in CompactPCI systems is

provided, helping integrators design telecommunications

systems that provide 99.999% (five-nines) availability.

"Five-nines" availability translates to about five minutes of

unplanned downtime per year, which is the norm in the

telecommunications industry.

The 6535 will be available for design-in evaluation to qualified accounts beginning in early July.

About Interphase Corporation

Interphase Corporation (Nasdaq:INPH), a leader in Fibre Channel and next generation telecommunication technologies, designs and delivers high performance connectivity adapters for computer and telecommunication networks. The company's Host Bus Adapter products connect computer and telecommunication servers to storage area networks (SAN), wide area networks (WAN) and local area networks (LAN) utilizing Fibre Channel, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (or ATM), SS7, Frame Relay and ISDN technologies. Headquartered in Dallas, with offices in Austin, Paris, London, and Bangkok, Interphase 1999 revenues were $73.5 million. Clients include Hewlett Packard, IBM, Compaq/Tandem, Motorola, Sun Microsystems, Lockheed Martin, Nokia and Raytheon. Additional information about Interphase and its products is available through the company's web site at http://www.iphase.com.

The Interphase logo is a registered trademark of Interphase Corporation.