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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications-News Only!!! (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: blankmind who wrote (699)	12/10/1997 12:21:00 PM
From: Perry P.	Respond to of 1629

Found this information in Dec 8th Infoworld Magazine. infoworld.com December 8, 1997 (Vol. 19, Issue 49) Delays hinder IP Navigator By Stephen Lawson Delays in integration of Ascend's IP Navigator software with the company's remote-access products may push back the availability of high-priority services from service-provider networks. The software, developed by Cascade Communications before its merger with Ascend last spring, allows packet traffic to be switched across a WAN built with Cascade ATM and frame-relay switches. Engineers are now working on extending it to Ascend's Max line of remote-access devices and GRF routers, and adding features that will let service providers offer guaranteed latency and delay for high-priority traffic. With this software available from one edge of the WAN to the other, voice, video, and high-priority applications could be carried reliably across an IP network. But some observers said the work has fallen months behind schedule. "By now the IP Navigator support across the Max 4000 line and the GRF should all have happened," said John Morency, principal at The Registry, in Newton, Mass. "This is more complex than they thought." Morency doesn't expect the software to be extended to these products until the second quarter. According to sources, Ascend had planned to announce IP Navigator support in the GRF at NetWorld+Interop in October. (See "Switching into high," Oct. 6, page 1.) Sources said the merger has been a rough one and attrition from the Cascade division may have slowed product development. The stakes are high, with ISPs and enterprises already demanding differentiated services. "There's a huge opportunity for ISPs to move corporations off the more expensive private-network services onto the public-network core," said John Coons, an analyst at Dataquest, in San Jose, Calif. The only other company close to providing this capability in products spanning the WAN is Cisco, according to observers. The company's Tag Switching technology is not expected to ship for both its routers and large core switches until late summer 1998. Ascend officials last week said that IP Navigator development is proceeding as planned and that the extended capabilities will be available in 1998. Ascend Communications Inc., in Alameda, Calif., is at (510) 769-6001. Cisco Systems Inc., in Santa Clara, Calif., is at (408) 526-4000. Copyright (c) InfoWorld Publishing Company 1997

To: blankmind who wrote (699)	12/10/1997 4:06:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

Lucent Technologies To Purchase Prominet Corporation, A Leader In Gigabit Ethernet Intelligent Networking Purchase of Prominet Adds to Growing Data Networking Portfolio MURRAY HILL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 1997-- In another move to address high-growth opportunities in the data networking business, Lucent Technologies today said it will acquire Prominet Corporation, a Marlborough, MA.-based start-up developer of high-performance local area network (LAN) switching equipment, for approximately $200 million worth of Lucent stock. Prominet is a leader in developing switches that connect PCs, workstations and servers using Gigabit Ethernet and integrated routing, which is referred to as Layer2/Layer 3 capabilities in the data networking industry. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the quarter ending March 31, 1998. In September Lucent introduced a strategy to address the data networking business and announced a series of new and enhanced products. ''When we unveiled our new products, we recognized that network managers would look to two technologies to deliver high performance data connectivity - ATM and Ethernet,'' said Bill O'Shea, president of Lucent's Data Networking Systems group. ''At that time we announced a portfolio of intelligent switches based on ATM technology. Today we fill in a key component of our intelligent switch offer with this acquisition of Prominet, a leading developer of Layer 2/Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet LAN technology.'' ''Computer users have an insatiable demand for more bandwidth to communicate through LANs and over wide area networks like the Internet,'' O'Shea said. ''That's why the Gigabit Ethernet industry is expected to grow from infancy today to $1 billion by 2000.'' ''Prominet meets this need with best-in-class Gigabit Ethernet technology that integrates switching and routing functionality to smash through existing network bandwidth bottlenecks. We are acquiring technology that is clearly next-generation in performance, yet compatible with more than 80% of the networks users have in place globally today,'' he said. ''We are also impressed with how quickly Prominet has built its worldwide reseller channel, which will help ensure the success of this Gigabit Ethernet initiative.'' Menachem E. Abraham, president and CEO of Prominet, will join Lucent as president, Gigabit Ethernet Switching Products, in its Data Networking Systems group. ''When we founded the company in 1996, our goal was to develop and deliver products that would make Prominet the leader in gigabit-scaled campus networking,'' Abraham said. ''We are keeping that promise with the delivery of products that clearly are ahead of the industry.''