Madge Introduces Next Generation Stackable Ethernet Switches; New Visage Family Delivers Multi-gigabit Performance, Industry's Leading RMON Management System.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 10, 1996--Madge Networks, a leading worldwide supplier of end-to-end switched network solutions, today announced the Visage(TM) family of stackable Ethernet switches for workgroups.

The Madge Visage family allows companies, for the first time, to operate stacked switches as a single logical unit for unprecedented scalability, performance and simultaneous Remote Monitoring (RMON) management across all ports. This new product family, based on Madge-developed core technology, redefines the functionality of stackable switches, enabling companies to completely scale and manage their networks with zero performance degradation -- all for under $190 per port when configured with network management and dual 100BASE-T uplinks.

"The Visage family of switches eliminate the barriers that have confined the deployment of switches to backbones and severely congested networks," said Shmil Levy, vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Systems division at Madge Networks. "The Visage product family is a very important part of Madge's end-to-end switched network solution for customers. Working in conjunction with Madge's SMON(TM) management application, LANswitch(TM) backbone switch and Collage(TM) family of ATM switches, the Visage switch family allows customers to completely integrate and manage both switched backbones and workgroups."

"The Visage switches are the first Ethernet stackable switches that we will seriously consider for deployment within our departments," said Kevin Shimamoto, director of Information Systems at Mercy Hospital in Merced, Calif. "The high performance and comprehensive management we've enjoyed with our Madge LANswitch chassis hubs can now be easily extended, at a low cost, throughout our network."

Madge's Visage product family provides features crucial to end-to-end deployment of switching within enterprise networks. Enabled by a four-Gigabit-Per-Second (Gbps) scaleable switch fabric, the Visage family delivers any combination of ports -- including 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX and 155-megabit-per-second (Mbps) Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) uplinks. The Visage product family supports high-end, RMON-compliant Switched Monitoring (SMON) network management and a variety of redundancy and fault-tolerant options. Key Quality of Service (QoS) features, that will support future multimedia applications include: two-level data priority, active congestion management for zero packet loss, and Virtual Local-Area Network (VLAN) to ATM-emulated LAN mapping.

The Visage switch family is based on Madge's industry-acclaimed LANswitch architecture, which has dominated independent tests and won numerous public performance contests for more than two years. According to International Data Corporation research, Madge is in the number four position in the high-end Ethernet switching market. Madge's success is partly due to its unequaled LANswitch and SMON management system products, which allow RMON monitoring of all ports simultaneously and top-down traffic flow analysis. This same management system, SMON, is available with the Visage family. Working in conjunction with the LANswitch and the Collage family of ATM access and backbone products, customers can have a fully manageable switch solution end-to-end from backbone to the desktop.

New Scalability and Performance

The Visage units function independently as stand-alone switches or are easily stacked and coupled to form a single logical switch, whereby network managers can easily add additional users or servers with zero performance degradation. The Visage product family is based on a four-Gbps scaleable switch fabric, allowing users to expand their workgroup to higher densities without oversubscribing the system. By contrast, today's typical stackable switches have interconnect bandwidths of only 100 Mbps, resulting in network congestion and packet loss.

In addition, the Visage family is designed to combine switched Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and ATM uplinks. When available, this will allow users to connect servers via 100BASE-T and have simultaneous connections to an ATM backbone. While products are available on the market today that support both 100BASE-T and ATM uplinks, none allow both technologies to be practically deployed at the same time. Madge's Visage switches are the only products available with enough raw switching capacity -- four Gbps -- to allow 100BASE-T to be used successfully in combination with ATM.

Core Silicon And Interconnect Technology

The breakthrough enabling technology development of the Visage family is the completion of a full custom VLSI chip. The Visage chip, two years in development, consists of more than one million transistors; it is similar in complexity to today's popular PC microprocessors. The Visage chip is essentially a switch-on-a-chip. It integrates almost all switching, control and network management functions into a single, low-cost package. The Visage chips communicate via the Exoplane(TM) interconnect system. This unique device acts as a virtual backplane, allowing stacked Visage switches to function as one logical switch. The Exoplane interconnect system enables full, non-blocking performance between any combination of up to four Visage switches, regardless of the number of switched ports in use.

Industry-Leading RMON Network Management

The Visage family features Madge's sophisticated SMON management system, which delivers the industry's most robust RMON network management functionality. Utilizing SMON, network managers, for the first time, have the same manageability level for switched local area networks (LANs) as for shared LANs. SMON enables network managers to obtain a complete RMON view of switched traffic in the network -- from LANswitch backbones to Visage workgroups to individual hosts -- for traffic analysis. Other workgroup switches currently on the market provide port "mirroring" or "copying" techniques, which limit network managers to minimal traffic data, making troubleshooting time-consuming and difficult. SMON is fully integrated with popular management platforms, such as HP OpenView for UNIX, HP OpenView for Windows and IBM NetView for AIX.

Systems Solutions

Complementing the Visage product family introduction are the LEB-200a module for the LANswitch and the MultiMan(TM) for Windows, Release 5.0, management tool. The LEB-200 full-duplex 100BASE-FX (100BASE-T over fiber) module plugs into the modular LANswitch. The LEB-200 provides a coherent fiber backbone between Visage and LANswitch products, operating effectively at 200 Mbps. The LEB-200 allows extension of virtual LANs, data priority, and congestion management from a Visage switch over a LANswitch-based backbone, creating the most interoperable end-to-end backbone/workgroup switching combination available. At the same time, ATM uplinks can connect the workgroup to LANswitch ATM access switches or directly to native ATM switches such as the Collage 740 ATM backbone switch. Both Visage and LANswitch are easily managed by MultiMan for Windows, Release 5.0, the first release to support the SMONMaster(TM) management software for Visage and LANswitch on the Windows platform.

Advanced Features

The switches also offer a rich feature set not previously available on workgroup switches. For instance, the Visage products feature 32,000 MAC addresses, half- and full-duplex capabilities, port mirroring and intrusion-control security. In addition, Madge's Visage switches can be equipped with redundant power supplies, data links and i960 microprocessor-based, network management agents and data links. To enable companies to design and implement fault-tolerant networks, the switches provide primary/secondary point-to-point link redundancy for host ports and primary/secondary link redundancy for all uplinks. -0-

Pricing and Availability

Product U.S.              SRP                    Availability

Visage 24T              $3,995                   August 1996
Visage NMA                $995                   August 1996
Visage NMA with SMON    $1,995                   August 1996
LEB-200                    TBA                  October 1996
Visage 16200F           $4,695                 November 1996
Visage 16200T           $4,195                 December 1996
Visage 16155F              TBA                       Q1 1997
Visage 16155FR             TBA                       Q2 1997
Visage 800T                TBA                       Q1 1997About Madge

Madge Networks (NASDAQ: MADGF) is a leading worldwide supplier of end-to-end switched networking solutions for large enterprises, with a special focus on networks which will be able to support integrated data, voice and video. The company, an originator of ATM, Ethernet, ISDN and Token Ring technology, offers a range of products from desktop connections through LAN and WAN switches, and enterprise network management software. Madge is recognized for its customer support without limits, technology excellence and end-to-end networking expertise, and serves its multinational customer base in more than 20 countries worldwide from five major business centers located in Hong Kong, London, San Jose, Tel Aviv and Tokyo.

In accordance with the new private securities litigation reform act of 1995, Madge Networks wants to point out that except for historical information contained in this release, there may be forward-looking statements which do not give full weight to all the potential risks including, but not limited to, product demand and market acceptance, the effect of economic conditions, the impact of competitive products and risks associated with the development and manufacture of technology products. Actual results may differ materially. The Company assumes no obligation to update this information. For more details on the risk factors, please refer to Madge's SEC filings. -0-

Note to Editors: Photos are available upon request.

Madge, the Madge Logo, Collage, Exoplane, LANswitch, LEB-200, Multiman, SMON, SMONMaster and Visage are trademarks, and in some jurisdictions may be registered trademarks, of Madge Networks or its affiliated companies. Other trademarks appearing in this document are the property of their respective owners.

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