FORE reloads ATM cannon [Discusses Hydra platform. Looks pretty good]
nwfusion.com
By Jim Duffy
Network World, 7/27/98
Warrendale, Pa. -Executives of FORE Systems,
Inc. last week detailed plans for a flexible
switching platform that will be embodied in a
broad portfolio of new LAN and WAN
offerings - an effort that underscores the
company's renewed vigor and its unwavering
commitment to ATM as the ideal transmission
medium for IP.
The platform - code-named Hydra - will serve
as the foundation for a cell and frame LAN edge
switch; a WAN access and concentration device
for branch, regional and headquarters offices;
and a multiservice concentrator for service
provider networks.
FORE is looking to Hydra to solidify its position
as the preeminent supplier of ATM switches to
enterprises. ATM switches currently account for
80% of the company's estimated $630 million in
annual revenue. Equally important, the company
hopes Hydra will help bolster sales to service
providers, where FORE will pitch ATM's
Private Network-to-Network Interface signaling
and routing protocol as the "intelligent
infrastructure" for carrying Internet traffic.
But most of all, executives said Hydra is
intended to serve as a firm reminder that, despite
prognostications of ATM's demise with the
emergence of Gigabit Ethernet, FORE and ATM
are still in the network game.
"Large enterprise customers prefer an ATM
backbone infrastructure," said FORE President
and Chief Executive Officer Tom Gill, who took
over as CEO in January. "They view ATM as
critical to their ongoing success. More of the
same," he said, referring to Ethernet and Gigabit
Ethernet, "is a recipe for disaster."
Amidst the recent Gigabit Ethernet and Layer 3
switching hype, FORE quietly reported record
sales of $143.7 million and earnings of $14.4
million for its fiscal 1999 first quarter, which
ended June 30. Revenue increased 51% over
first-quarter 1998 sales, while earnings rocketed
189% over the same period last year. That's a
time FORE would just as soon forget, as
problems in Asian markets and the FUD
surrounding Gigabit Ethernet's impact on ATM
translated into a slowdown in sales.
But a year later, after refocusing its sales
channels and vertical market strategy, and honing
its marketing message, FORE - and perhaps
ATM - is back with a vengeance.
"We're not major-project-dependent any more,"
said Gill, referring to FORE's previous penchant
of overlooking smaller network deals in favor of
$20 million and $30 million home runs. "We're
focused on opportunities we can win."
And win it did over the last quarter, chalking up
the likes of Prudential Insurance Company of
America, Dr. Pepper/Seven Up, Level 3
Communications, Time Warner and News
International as new customers. Gill said these
companies opted for FORE and ATM because
they realized they need to make a change. Gill
claims the companies see a "compelling business
case for ATM. [Gigabit Ethernet is] not going to
scale to the levels you need to stay competitive."
The many faces of Hydra
Scale is the key goal behind the Hydra platform.
The chassis features 10 slots - two for the
switching CPU and eight for LAN and WAN
interface cards. The cell-switching module starts
out by offering 10G bit/sec of capacity, but users
can quickly upgrade that to 20G bit/sec by
snapping a 10G bit/sec circuit board onto the
original switching engine.
Hydra will fill the void between FORE's existing
ASX-1000, which scales from 2.5G bit/sec to
10 bit/sec, and the new 40G bit/sec ASX-4000,
which will ship next month. Both are pure ATM
switches, whereas Hydra is a frame/cell switch.
Still, Hydra may not be for everyone.
"For our data center, probably something like an
ASX-4000 would be good," said Suri
Denduluri, who helps run the systems and
networks behind the animation operations at
DreamWorks in Universal City, Calif. "But we
have no plans to upgrade edge devices right
away. Maybe in the future, but everything is
sketchy right now."
For LAN edge applications, Hydra will serve as
a wiring closet feeder to an ASX-4000 in the
network core. Hydra will support up to 196
10/100M bit/sec autosensing Ethernet ports and
40 million packet/sec of throughput, and will
perform Layer 3 and Layer 4 switching, FORE
officials said. At 20G bit/sec, the switch will have
enough bandwidth to handle 128 OC-3, 32
OC-12 and eight OC-48 ports, and 20 Gigabit
Ethernet interfaces.
FORE would not disclose actual ATM and
Gigabit Ethernet port densities for Hydra, but
officials said a Hydra-based LAN switch will
appear in early 1999.
For branch offices with fewer than 100 people,
Hydra can function as a WAN access device or
a transparent LAN service node. In these roles,
Hydra will sport T-1/E-1, frame relay, PPP, and
voice and video modules in addition to Ethernet
and ATM modules.
FORE would not disclose the actual number of
T-1/E-1, frame relay or voice and video
interfaces for the chassis. Hydra will first appear
as an enterprise WAN access device before
year-end.
Hydra can also be used as a WAN
concentration device for regional offices and
corporate headquarters. In this configuration, the
switch will support NxT-1, DS-3, concentrated
OC-3c, frame relay, PPP, and multiple voice
and LAN ports. This configuration will be
available in the second half of 1999, officials
said.
Lastly, Hydra can be used as a multiservice
concentrator for the edge of service provider
networks. In this configuration, FORE refers to
the product as the MSC-700.
The MSC-700 will reuse line cards from the
existing ASX-1000 and 2.5G bit/sec
ASX-200BX switches.
Indeed, all variations of Hydra will share the
same segmentation and reassembly silicon and
common software, making it easier to deploy
end-to-end quality-of-service features and
manage the network, FORE claimed.
Analysts said all vendors are gunning for this
integrated LAN/WAN design.
"That's the next target," said Melinda Le Baron,
director of LAN research at Gartner Group, Inc.
"It's a demarcation for technology if you don't
have ATM in the campus and then ATM going
wide area. Having a consistent technology
scheme can minimize the cost, pain and
headaches."
In addition to service consistency, FORE is
gunning for scalability in the Internet backbones.
The company plans to boost the ASX-4000
beyond 160G bit/sec by employing a patented
"look ahead" algorithm that provides
deterministic scheduling of 53-byte cells destined
for shared memory output queues.
The determinism comes from scheduling and
queuing a full, fixed-length cell rather than
segmenting the cell as is done in the
ASX-200BX and ASX-1000.
"The challenge to us was can we take the shared
memory/ output queued model and make it scale
to big switches," said Ron Bianchini, vice
president of product architecture at FORE.
Other enhancements coming to FORE's lineup
include OC-3 interfaces on the stackable
ES-2810 10/100M Ethernet switches in early
1999, and OC-12 interfaces at an unspecified
time thereafter.
The ES-2810 is a result of FORE's alliance with
Intel Corp., a partnership company executives
say is key to filling out the low end of FORE's
Ethernet- and Fast Ethernet-to-ATM offerings.
Intel is a good complement to FORE because
the chip maker focuses almost exclusively on
low-end, price-sensitive gear, whereas FORE
goes after higher end wiring closet and backbone
opportunities with its ATM and PowerHub
switches. The PowerHub line was obtained from
the 1995 acquisition of Alantec.
Also on the new product docket are 622M
bit/sec ForeRunnerHE workstation adapters,
which will debut before year-end; and a 2.5G
bit/sec ForeRunnerHE adapter for servers,
which will emerge in the second half of 1999.
All of the new products are designed to keep the
momentum from the first quarter going, and
establish FORE as a leading supplier and ATM
as the leading technology for IP service
infrastructures.
"We're not selling a religion," said Ron
McKenzie, vice president of strategic marketing.
"We're selling a solution to a business problem."
Contact Senior
Editor Jim Duffy.
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