Interphase Announces Price Reduction on 25.6 Mbps ATM Adapter for PCI Systems; 35% Drop in List Price Puts Desktop ATM Pricing in Fast Ethernet Range.SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 1996--Interphase Corporation (NASDAQ/NMS: INPH), a leader in providing high performance standards-based Asynchronous Transfer Mode See ATM. (communications) Asynchronous Transfer Mode - (ATM, or "fast packet") A method for the dynamic allocation of bandwidth using a fixed-size packet (called a cell). See also ATM Forum, Wideband ATM. ATM acronyms. Indiana acronyms. adapters, today announced that it has significantly dropped the list price of its 5525 Desktop ATM Adapter to $222. The Interphase 5525 PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). ATM Adapter provides full duplex 25.6 Mbps connectivity for most PCI-compliant systems, from PC-clones to Power Macintoshes to powerful multiprocessing desktops. "When Interphase introduced our 25Mbit ATM line earlier this year, we stated the company's goal was to drive pricing for desktop ATM to be on par with that of Fast Ethernet within an aggressive timeframe," said Jim Gleason, Interphase vice president of sales and operations. "Today's announcement demonstrates that Interphase is serious about reaching that goal." This announcement puts ATM pricing in line with other LAN (Local Area Network) A communications network that serves users within a confined geographical area. The "clients" are the user's workstations typically running Windows, although Mac and Linux clients are also used. technologies and allows users to consider the benefits which only ATM can provide -- at an attractive market price. "The Interphase price reduction makes the cost-per-user of desktop ATM comparable to that of other high speed alternatives," said Kurt Bauer, vice president of marketing and new business development at Whitetree, Inc. "With this aggressive pricing from Interphase, Whitetree customers can now implement an ATM solution with a total connection cost around $800." (i)chip Technology For Enhanced Performance Interphase ATM adapters, including the 5525, feature a high performance architecture based around the custom Interphase (i)chip ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. . The (i)chip provides an embedded host interface, segmentation and reassembly segmentation and reassembly - segmentation (SAR (Segmentation And Reassembly) The protocol that converts data to cells for transmission over an ATM network. It is the lower part of the ATM Adaption Layer (AAL), which is responsible for the entire operation. See AAL. SAR - segmentation and reassembly ), 128 byte PCI bursts, enhanced CBR (1) (Computer-Based Reference) Reference materials accessible by computer in order to help people do their jobs quicker. For example, this database on disk! (2) (Constant Bit Rate) A uniform transmission rate. traffic, early packet discard and a number of other enhancements designed to boost system performance. The next version of the Interphase ATM ASIC, the (i)chip+, will add true ABR (1) (AutoBaud Rate detect) The analysis of the first characters of a message to determine its transmission speed and number of start and stop bits. (2) (Available Bit R capability -- processing and generating Resource Management (RM) cells in hardware -- providing a quick response time with a low level of cell loss. This differs from some current "ABR Ready" offerings in the marketplace where software is utilized to process RM cells. The (i)chip+ will be implemented on Interphase ATM adapters beginning in Q396. Feature-rich Software for Legacy LAN or Native ATM Applications The 5525 includes support for most popular desktop network operating systems including Windows 95, Windows NT, Workgroup for Windows, AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive) IBM's Unix-based operating system which runs on its Intellistation workstations and pSeries, p5, iSeries and i5 server families. , NetWare, Solaris X86, MacOS and UnixWare. All Interphase ATM device drivers are based on a common driver architecture which provides support for UNI 3.0/3.1, Classical IP, ATM Forum LAN Emulation, and an Application Programming Interface (API) based on Winsock2. Future implementations will include support for MPOA (MultiProtocol Over ATM) An ATM Forum standard that provides routing of legacy protocols (IP, IPX, etc.) over ATM networks. MPOA separates the routing processing from the actual forwarding. . CellView Configuration Management In addition, Interphase ATM adapters feature CellView configuration management software. CellView allows a system administrator to quickly configure Interphase ATM adapters and collect statistical information through an intuitive graphical user interface graphical user interface (GUI) Computer display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a mouse to point to pictorial symbols (icons) or lists of menu choices on the screen as opposed to having to . Among its features, CellView displays all Interphase ATM boards installed in a system including hardware version level. CellView facilitates configuration of signaling parameters, LAN Emulation Client (LEC) interfaces, the LAN Emulation Server (LES) interface, LAN Emulation Configuration Server (LECS See LANE. ) interfaces, and emulated LAN mapping information. Further, CellView provides information on SONET, signaling, and cell level statistics, AAL5 statistics, LEC membership and statistics, and LEC/LECS statistics. -0- Note to Editors: Interphase Corporation is a leading supplier of desktop and server I/O products for high speed networks. The company is a principal member of The ATM Forum, a founding member of the Desktop ATM25 Alliance, and steering committee member of the ATM Consortium at the University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Lab. Interphase is a leading proponent of fostering ATM interoperability in the industry and sponsors multi-vendor interoperability test sessions at its corporate facilities in Dallas, Texas. Interphase was recently ranked as the no. 2 supplier of ATM adapters in North America by Dataquest (June 1995). For more information on Interphase products call (800) FASTNET, email fastnet@iphase.com, or visit our web page at www.iphase.com. (i)chip and CellView are trademarks of Interphase Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. CONTACT: Interphase Corporation Michael Eckley, 214/654-5325 meckley@iphase.com or S&S Public Relations Liza Beresford, 708/291-1616, ext. 266 |
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