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High-performance network switches, servers, ... Date: 12-Sep-1994
High-performance network switches, servers, routers debut
Digital today announced new, high-performance network switches,
servers and routers that dramatically enhance corporate connectivity,
ranging from workgroup networking to enterprise-wide computing.
"There are three important functions that are demanded by network
users -- hubbing, routing and switching," according to Dr. Laurence
Walker, vice president and general manager of Digital's Network Product
Business. "The three are converging into a single, seamless product
set. This announcement demonstrates Digital's momentum in the
converging market, with a comprehensive set of offerings that enables
easy connectivity across an entire organization."
Switching products
Digital's networking product strategy brings the benefits of
high-performance switching to a range of network applications. Digital
switches can connect multiple, high-performance personal computers,
workstations and servers on a single LAN, as well as interconnect
multiple desktop and departmental LANs into a high-performance
corporate backbone.
The newly announced switches extend customers' flexibility in
configuring and evolving their networks, complementing the company's
award-winning GIGAswitch/FDDI and DECswitch 900EF products. Together,
these switches offer network managers a wide range of high-performance
network solutions.
The new DECswitch 900EE is a full-performance, store-and-forward
Ethernet switch for department-level connectivity, ensuring data
integrity as well as high performance. The DECswitch 900EE
dramatically improves network performance, providing high-speed access
among multiple Ethernet LANs and backbones. The switch can also be
easily upgraded to support multiprotocol routing capabilities.
Digital targets its PEswitch 900TX at the emerging desktop
switching market. This multiport Ethernet switch delivers low-cost,
dedicated 10 Mb/s bandwidth to each port. These "personalized
Ethernets" can in turn be switched at full speed to an FDDI link
for high-performance desktop and/or server connections.
The PEswitch 900TX supports full IEEE-compliant Ethernet-FDDI
translation and IP packet fragmentation for robust, high-performance
switching. The performance of desktop connections can be selectively
upgraded with the PEswitch 900TX, at a cost that is significantly lower
than other high-speed technologies.
The DECswitch 900EE and the PEswitch 900TX are unique in that
they can be deployed in either stand-alone ("rack and stack")
configurations, as well as in a DEChub 900 Multi Switch. The two new
switches provide comprehensive filtering capabilities, encompassing
source address, destination address and protocol type.
Digital's entire switch family can be managed from HUBwatch, a
low-cost, graphical SNMP management application available on a choice
of PC and enterprise management platforms.
Access products
The company also offers a family of access products that provide
seamless connectivity from remote sites to the enterprise network. The
enhanced DECserver family provides networking solutions for
client/server computing, interconnecting remote desktop and laptop
devices running various operating systems and network protocols.
Composed of the DECserver 90M, DECserver 700 and DECserver 900TM
products, the product set provides full remote user access to Novell
IPX, AppleTalk and IP servers. Users now have full remote node
functionality within all these environments through a single DECserver.
Digital also announced an upgraded hardware platform
incorporating expanded memory for the DECbrouter 90, plus a price
reduction of 27 percent on the DECwanrouter 90. In addition, the
DECwanrouter 90 now supports Novell IPX environments.
The DECwanrouter family is expanding with the introduction of the
DECwanrouter 90EW. This unit provides cost-effective connections of
small Ethernet LANs to regional or backbone sites, across wide-area
services such as leased line, dial-up and X.25 through two WAN ports.
The new DECwanrouter 90EW supports TCP/IP, IPX, OSI and DECnet, and
features flash memory that enables easy software upgrade and
configuration. Digital also designed its new router to accept an ISDN
card, which will be announced shortly.
Digital was one of the original developers of many current
networking technologies, such as Ethernet and FDDI LANs, network
switches, routers, bridges and terminal servers. The company also
developed the first practical solutions to integrating the most popular
industry protocols and platforms. Digital has installed more than
110,000 networks and networked more than 1.5 million computers.
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