Networks news:
3Com sales slump in second quarter
By Jon Skillings
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 7:09 AM PT, Dec 19, 1997
3Com eked out a profit of $15.08 million on declining revenues for its
second fiscal quarter, which ended Nov. 30, the company announced
Thursday.
Earnings were down 87 percent from $115.69 million in the same period a
year ago. Income per share for the 1997 second quarter was 4 cents,
compared with 33 cents last year.
Revenue year-on-year showed a much less dramatic decline, slipping 14
percent to $1.22 billion in the most recent quarter from $1.42 billion
for the same period last year.
3Com had anticipated the troubled results and warned analysts earlier
this month. Going into the second half of its fiscal year, the Santa
Clara, Calif., company plans to improve its channel inventory
measurement systems, move to a new generation of platforms, and reach
out across the enterprise, carrier, small-business, and consumer
markets, the company said in a statement.
For the first half of its fiscal year, 3Com reported a loss of $131.74
million, compared with a profit of $267.66 million for the same period a
year earlier. Revenue for the first half, meanwhile, rose to $2.82
billion from $2.67 billion last year.
In the second quarter, sales were split almost evenly between system
products (switches, hubs, internetworking, and remote access products)
and client access products (network interface cards and modems).
3Com Corp., in Santa Clara, Calif., is at 3com.com.
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Berkeley Networks' Gigabit LAN switch to use NT to classify traffic
By Stephen Lawson
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 4:22 PM PT, Dec 19, 1997
Networking start-up Berkeley Networks next month will enter the
accelerating market for class-of-service switches with a powerful
partner: Microsoft.
Sources said Berkeley Networks will introduce a gigabit-speed LAN
backbone switch that can classify traffic to and from Windows NT servers
on a variety of parameters and rapidly forward high-priority packets.
Unlike other application-aware switches announced in recent months, such
as Layer 4 switches touted by Yago Networks and other vendors, the
Berkeley Networks device will run the Windows NT network operating
system. Sources said integration of NT, along with other technology
acquired from Microsoft, will give the Berkeley Networks Gigabit
Ethernet switch greater control over traffic priority than other
switches in NT networks.
Network hardware vendors are working to provide differentiated service
across enterprises according to policies set by network administrators.
Layer 4 switches use Transport Control Protocol port numbers to identify
different applications and place some types of TCP/IP traffic ahead of
others.
Berkeley Networks is based in San Jose, Calif., and can be reached at
berkeleynet.com.
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Good luck and have a Happy Holiday to every one.
Duke |
