SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1997 MAR 31 (NB) -- By Ian Stokell.
Despite having to slash the price of its Fast Ethernet network
interface cards (NICs) earlier in the year to match competitor
Intel Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC], 3Com Corp. [NASDAQ:COMS] is still adding to
its product line. Now the company has announced first shipments of
its Fast EtherLink XL 10/100Base-T4 PCI (Peripheral Component
Interconnect) NIC.
According to the company, the new card enables a Fast Ethernet
connection across category 3, 4, or 5 unshielded twisted pair (UTP)
cable.
3Com says its 100Base-T4 NICs enable full 100 megabits-per-second
(Mbps) connectivity across all major types of UTP cabling. This,
claims the company, eliminates compatibility issues and additional
cost usually associated with replacing older category 3 and 4 UTP
cable.
The company says the Fast EtherLink XL T4 NIC should be installed
when users have legacy cable, low quality category 5 cable, or a
combination of legacy cable and new cable.
The 10/100Base-T4 Fast EtherLink XL PCI card will be available the
first week in April, priced at $149 in packs of 20. Single units
and packs of five are also available. |
