SohoBasic rolls out first 10/100 Mbps products for home and remote office connectivity.

HSINCHU, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 2, 1997--Accton Technology Corporation today unveiled the first products from its new SohoBasic division.

This new family of SOHO network adapters, hubs, routers, and peripherals has been developed specifically for small office/home office networking applications. The new SohoBasic product line draws from engineering and technology proven in Accton's comprehensive line of easy-to-use hub and switch technology, but it has been scaled specifically to meet the needs and budgets of small remote office sites with 50 users or less, and home office telecommuters.

This new business unit is also opening a new distribution channel for its SohoBasic products, making them available directly from mail order catalogs and retailers.

Included in the new SohoBasic family are network adapters, hubs, routers, switches, and printer servers. The diverse product offering encompasses 10 Mbps Ethernet, 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet connectivity for more efficient network server connectivity, and ISDN connectivity for high-speed remote access.

The SohoBasic products have been custom-designed to accommodate limited space, a limited budget, and limited networking expertise. The SohoBasic products are lightweight, compact, and designed for wall mount or for discrete, out-of-sight installation, and they all use Accton's advanced, simple network installation, making them ideal for novice network users.

"Corporate LAN/WAN customers are aggressively expanding their remote network access strategies to support field offices and the growing number of telecommuters," said A.J. Huang, Executive Vice President of Accton Technology. "However, the needs of home and remote office users are different than those of the corporate LAN, so we are creating this new family of SohoBasic products scaled to meet the unique needs of the small office.

"The SohoBasic mission is to offer customers state-of-the-art networking technology backed by Accton's engineering expertise, delivered direct to consumers through retail, mail order, and other channels."

Delivering Versatile Connectivity

SohoBasic will offer a diverse line of network adapters, hubs, switches, routers, and a printer server in this family, giving customer all the resources they need to connect a remote work group or home office to a corporate network.

The adapter cards offered by SohoBasic include the NIC200, an ISA 10 Mbps LAN adapter with both 10BASE-T and 10BASE2 ports for versatile network access. The line also includes the NIC220, a 10BASE-T/10BASE2 PC Card LAN adapter so laptop and notebook users can get plug-and-play network access.

SohoBasic also offers the NIC310, a high-performance PCI adapter that includes support for both 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX connections -- an ideal adapter for a file server or wherever faster networking speeds are required. All of the SohoBasic network adapters have Accton's exclusive MPX2 multipacket accelerator design for fast installation and superior performance. They are also plug-and-play with Windows 95 and come with a limited lifetime warranty.

For SOHO workgroup applications, SohoBasic is also offering both 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX hubs. The 10BASE-T hubs include configurations for five RJ-45 ports (Hub205), eight RJ-45 ports with one AUI port (Hub208a) to connect to a backbone, eight RJ-45 ports with one BNC port (Hub208b), and 16 RJ-45 ports with an AUI/BNC port (Hub216c).

For more intense data traffic needs, SohoBasic also offers two 100BASE-TX hubs, the Hub305 with five RJ-45 ports and the Hub308 with eight RJ-45 ports. All the hubs in the SohoBasic family are plug-and-play, with an MDI port for daisy chaining, and an LED display for easy-to-read troubleshooting.

For more efficient performance, SohoBasic has included the Switch307, a seven-port fast-packet switch with one 10/100BASE-TX port and six 10BASE-T ports -- ideal for connecting a workgroup to a server or high-speed backbone. The switch is completely self-configuring with auto-port speed sensing and full-duplex capabilities so it can support an effective throughput up to 200 Mbps when used with a full-duplex SohoBasic adapter.

"With the introduction of the first SohoBasic products, we have extended the plug-and-play networking philosophy that has proven so successful in Accton's workgroup products," Huang added. "Accton's superior hardware design and ASIC technology allows us to extend our proven 10/100 Mbps workgroup technology to deliver turnkey networking solutions to SOHO users."

ISDN Access, The Key to Remote Office Success

To support high-speed remote access, SohoBasic has also included the Router203. The Router203 features one ISDN BRI port, four 10BASE-T ports, and two ports for telephone and FAX support. The Router203 is the ideal home office access solution, giving users high-speed ISDN dial-up access through a single, easy-to-install device. And by adding ISDN support for workgroups with the Router203, remote office users get the dual benefit of dial-up access that delivers high-speed connectivity on demand. Combining FAX and telephone support with ISDN access in the same router also saves on telephone line charges.

Finally, SohoBasic has included the PrintServer201, a printer server that features one parallel port, as well as one RJ-45 port for 10BASE-T. The PrintServer201 can bring multiple printers into the workgroup, complete with support for NetBEUI, IPX, and TCP/IP protocols for network printing, and upgradeable Flash ROM to add other print drivers. Because of the multiprotocol support, the PrintServer201 can support any Windows, NetWare, or UNIX application, and it includes an easy-to-use configuration utility.

The first SohoBasic products are scheduled to reach retailers in late June, including 10BASE-T adapters, hubs, and cables. The switches, and routers, and the PrintServer201, and 100BASE-T products will be added to the SohoBasic line early in the third quarter. Please contact SohoBasic at No. 1, Creation Road III, Science-based Industrial Park, Hsinchu 3007, Taiwan, R.O.C. Tele: 3-577-0270, Fax: [phone] for specifications and pricing information.

CONTACT: Accton Technology Corporation

ABK Chiou, 011/886-3-577-0270

www.accton.com

or

Woolf Media Relations, Inc.

Tom Woolf, 415/508-1554

www.woolfmedia.com