Network World
February 16, 1998
Network World via Individual Inc. : Rumors have it that Cisco Systems,
Inc.'s Gigabit Ethernet travails included interest in acquiring YAGO
Systems, Inc., a gigabit router company cofounded by two Cisco engineers
and acquired four weeks ago by Cabletron Systems, Inc.
Were those rumors off base? Not according to some ex-Cisco engineers who
noted a connection between Cisco, YAGO, Ethernet start-up Granite Systems,
Inc. - which Cisco acquired 18 months ago - and Cisco's ''Milan'' gigabit
multilayer switch project.
The ex-Cisco engineers, who requested anonymity, said the cofounders of
YAGO - Romulus Pereira and Nilesh Shah - were developing Gigabit Ethernet
multilayer switching products while employed by Cisco. Pereira and Shah
joined Cisco when the company acquired Ethernet switch vendor Kalpana, Inc.
in 1994.
When Cisco acquired Granite in September 1996, Cisco shuttered the project
Pereira and Shah were working on and the two left Cisco to found YAGO that
same month, according to the sources.
When Cisco found the Granite technology would not suffice for its Gigabit
Ethernet multilayer switching plans, the company exhumed Pereira and Shahs
project and code-named it Milan, the sources said. At YAGO, Pereira and
Shah developed the MSR 8000 and MSR 16000 Multilayer Switch Routers and
helped sell the company to Cabletron in 18 months.
As a result, Cabletron may beat the router leader to market with a gigabit
wire-speed router by six months. Milan is expected in late summer or early
fall. Cabletrons MSR is expected to ship in March.
After initially agreeing to talk with Network World, Shah later backed down.
''I don't know about the Milan project or anything like that,'' Shah said.
''I really don't want to make any comments on that. I left a year and a
half ago. I had an idea so I decided to get the other two founders together
and we decided to form a company. There were no hard feelings, nothing like
that. I'm not aware of what happened after I left.''
Pereira did not return phone calls. Cisco declined comment.
[Copyright 1998, Network World]
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