Speaking of GE, I haven't seen anyone mention the Cisco announcement
which came out two (oops, three, now that it's 1:20 am EST) days
ago. Anyone care to comment on the price/performance comparisons?
--------------------
<<SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 1998--
New Catalyst Products Enhance Performance, Increase System
Capacity and Give Customers a Wider Range of Options for
Smooth Migration to Higher-Performance Networks.
Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) today announced further
enhancements to the Catalyst(R) 5000 family as well as a range of
gigabit networking solutions for both the Catalyst 5000 family and the
Cisco 7500 series of high-end routers.
These new products give networking professionals additional
high-performance options and a smooth migration path to build
scalable, multilayer gigabit campus networks in both enterprise and
service provider environments.
The new products introduced include the Catalyst 5505, the
Supervisor III switching engine, the NetFlow feature card (NFFC),
Gigabit Ethernet uplinks, an OC-12 module, a three-port Gigabit
Ethernet switching module, a nine-port Gigabit EtherChannel(R)
switching module and for the Cisco 7500 series of routers, Gigabit
Ethernet Interface Processors (GEIPs).
These new options leverage Cisco's industry-leading Gigabit
Ethernet switching technology, which was publicly demonstrated at
NetWorld+Interop in the fall of 1997.
"To build and maintain a corporate network that regularly
transmits trillions of bits of data per day, any new networking
solution must have several key essentials: performance, scalability
and investment protection," said Kelly Carpenter, network analyst for
the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University. "Cisco's
Catalyst 5000 family coupled with Cisco 7000 series routers
consistently provide us with all the options we need to not only
maintain, but expand and enhance our backbone network for the future."
High-Performance Gigabit Networking Solutions
The Catalyst 5000 family will accommodate a range of high- and
low-port-density Gigabit Ethernet line modules via technology
successfully integrated from the Granite Systems acquisition.
The Gigabit Ethernet options available for the Catalyst 5000
series are a three-port switching module for server farms and a
nine-port Gigabit EtherChannel switching module. The three port cards
have a switching capacity of 6 gigabits while each of the nine-port
line cards can handle 24 gigabits of switching capacity. In addition,
there are two gigabit Ethernet modular uplink ports which can be
supported on the new Supervisor III engine.
For the Cisco 7500, the new GEIP is the first member of Gigabit
Ethernet products for the Cisco 7000 family routers. It is designed to
provide connectivity to Gigabit Ethernet-switched networks from the
extensive LAN and WAN services supported by the Cisco 7500. The GEIP
can support a variety of media types including 1000Base-SX for short
range and 1000Base-LX for intermediate range fiber interconnects.
Easy Upgrade to Standards-Based Gigabit Ethernet
In order to ensure future flexibility, standards compliance and
investment protection, Cisco has designed its gigabit solutions using
industry-standard gigabit interface converters (GBICs) for the
physical connections into the system. These small connectors enable
customers to quickly and easily swap physical interface options on a
port-by-port basis depending on their distance needs and allows for
future expandability.
Furthermore, if there is a change to the transceiver
specifications in the Gigabit Ethernet standard, only the GBICs need
to be changed, not the entire box. This avoids the costly burden and
risks associated with bringing down the network to replace a
noncompliant switch.
To further enhance high-speed connectivity, Cisco is also
implementing Gigabit EtherChannel on the nine-port gigabit switching
modules for the Catalyst 5000 family. Gigabit EtherChannel enables up
to eight Gbps of throughput between Cisco switches by grouping
together four Gigabit Ethernet links to be combined into a single
logical link that automatically load balances and provides failover of
less than one second.
Cisco continues to ship thousands of Fast EtherChannel ports in a
range of solutions for the Catalyst 2900, Catalyst 5000 and Cisco 7500
series. Many customers have implemented Fast EtherChannel because it
yields up to 800 Mbps of full duplex, resilient bandwidth and runs
over standard media for distances of up to two kilometers.
Advanced Multicast Support
Many networked multimedia applications place not only a heavy
load on the network, but require a high degree of intelligence to be
embedded into the system. The Catalyst 5000 family and the Supervisor
III engine now enable wire-speed multicast traffic to be supported
simultaneously on up to 266 10/100-Mbps ports.
Thus, the Catalyst 5500 can switch over 40 million pps and
customers are still able to set up and maintain robust, intelligent
networks that handle multicast traffic extremely well.
"At Microsoft we have developed a strategy to deploy multicast
services across our worldwide network infrastructure to support
multicast enabled applications like NetShow and NetMeeting. During our
selection of products for this deployment, we were especially
impressed with the Catalyst architecture and how it handles multicast
and broadcast packets," said Sunjeev Pandey, senior network engineer
at Microsoft Corporation's Information Technology Group.
"As a result, the Catalyst product is used at the heart of our
network where its packet-forwarding rates combined with its support of
intelligent IGMP pruning provide exactly the type of solution we are
looking for."
High Port Densities, Proven Technologies and Multilayer Performance
With the new Gigabit Ethernet modules, the Catalyst 5500 offers
industry-leading port densities of 32 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 264
10/100BaseT, or 526 10BaseT connections with capacity of 75 gigabits
and 56 million packets-per-second (pps) performance. The five-slot
Catalyst 5505 can support over 50 gigabits of switching capacity, 38
million pps, and can have up to 20 gigabit Ethernet ports, 96 100BaseT
or 196 10BaseT connections.
Additionally, the Catalyst 5505 and 5500 support redundant power
supplies and supervisor engines. This capability gives customers the
ability to run their networks with minimal network downtime.
Furthermore, all Catalyst 5000 family members support hot-swapping of
modules so the network is always operational -- even as changes take
place real-time.
Because the demands on the network are greatest in the backbone,
networking professionals need to employ fast systems that have high
capacities, high availability and possess all of the Layer 3 features
and functionality they have come to rely on.
This functionality includes comprehensive support for: IP routing
protocols such as OSPF, RIP II, IGRP and Enhanced IGRP; multicast
protocols like CGMP, IGMP DVMRP and PIM; mobility protocols like DHCP
and IP mobility; HSRP for resilience; and support for multiprotocol
environments that have IPX, DECNet, and AppleTalk traffic.
To support fully functional Layer 3 performance, the combination
of the Route Switch Module (RSM) and the NFFC on the Supervisor III
engine makes the Catalyst 5000 family an ideal high-density platform
to scale the bandwidth in corporate networks without compromising
network functionality or basic operations.
When equipped with Cisco's Layer 3 solutions, the Catalyst 5000
family of products can switch multiple millions of packets per second
while leveraging the extensive network services inherent in Cisco
IOS(TM) software such as quality of service, security, network
management, accounting, monitoring and multicast functionality.
Future additions to the Catalyst family of products will scale
Layer 3 performance to 20 million packets per second for both IP and
IPX traffic. This advanced technology will also be leveraged within
the Catalyst 5500 platform for investment protection and flexibility.
Paths to Gigabit Ethernet or ATM
To provide customers with a smooth migration path for either
Gigabit Ethernet or Asynchronous Transfer Mode based networks, Cisco
continues to evolve its Catalyst product line to offer a range of
options that seamlessly fit into today's high-performance
environments.
Cisco has added an OC-12 ATM LAN Emulation (LANE) module that can
provide media-rate LANE performance with the ability to support
multiprotocol over ATM MPOA as a future software upgrade. Each OC-12
card can support up to 1.22 Gbps of throughput and can be configured
with dual physical connections for redundancy.
As networks continue to evolve and change in the future,
customers demand that their investments in networking solutions be
protected. A key advantage of the Catalyst 5000 architecture is the
assurance that line modules remain consistent throughout the system as
customers migrate to multilayer gigabit networks, whether frame or
cell based.
Pricing and Availability
Product Price Availability
Catalyst 5505 chassis + power supply $4,250 Now
Supervisor III $13,995 Now
2-port Gigabit uplinks - Supervisor III $3,995 Q2 1998
3-port Gigabit switching module $5,995 Q2 1998
9-port Gigabit EtherChannel module $24,995 Summer 1998
OC-12 ATM module $17,995 Q2 1998
Route Switch Module $19,995 Now
NetFlow Feature Card $4,995 Q2 1998
Gigabit Ethernet Interface Processor $12,000 Q3 1998
Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in
networking for the Internet. News and information are available at
cisco.com.
-0-
Note to Editors: Catalyst, Cisco, Cisco Systems the Cisco Systems
logo and EtherChannel are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems Inc.
in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks
mentioned in this document are the property of their respective
owners.
--30--aa/sf*
CONTACT: Cisco Systems Inc.
Robert Barlow, 408/527-5018
rbarlow@cisco.com
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMED COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS PRODUCT
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