PB and all, Article...Intel to sample Layer 3 LAN-switch chip...
September 22, 1999
ELECTRONIC BUYERS NEWS : Silicon Valley- Completing another piece of its communications-IC puzzle, Intel Corp. will soon begin sampling its long-awaited LAN-switch chip for Layer 3 applications in Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet networks.
Announced at the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., earlier this month, the IXE2412 will propel Intel into the Layer 3-based switch-chip market, a business dominated by several small, fabless design houses.
Layer 3 switches enable packet data to be routed quickly over an Internet Protocol network, whereas Layer 2-based switches send data only over a LAN.
Intel's IXE2412 was developed by Acclaim Communications Inc., a San Jose-based equipment maker. Last year, Acclaim was bought by LAN/WAN-chip specialist Level One Communications Inc., which itself was acquired in March by Intel.
The IXE2412 is designed for high-end Layer 3 applications such as routing and data-packet classification, said Robert Pepper, vice president of Intel's Network Communications Group and general manager of Level One in Sacramento, Calif. The chip will also provide Layer 2 functions, he added.
Company officials declined to provide pricing details or the shipment schedule for the IXE2412, but the chip is expected to begin sampling this month or next, with volume production slated for early 2000, according to a source at switch-equipment maker Accton Technology Corp. Accton, Hsinchu, Taiwan, is one of the beta sites for the IXE2412, the source said.
With this chip, Intel is poised to compete aggressively in several LAN/WAN-chip markets. At the low end, Level One already sells physical-layer ICs and hub chips. The Intel subsidiary also makes chips for DSL, T1/E1, and other applications. In the midrange LAN-chip segment, Intel will compete with the IXE2412 switching IC.
At the high end, the company offers two types of network processors. In July, Intel acquired Softcom Microsystems Inc., a Fremont, Calif. supplier of network processors, for $150 million. Softcom makes network processors for carrier-class applications in cutting-edge OC-3 to OC-48 networks.
In addition, Intel has launched an internally developed network processor dubbed the IXP1200-a 1,000-mips chip that embeds six 166-MHz processors in an improved version of its StrongArm RISC chip.
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