San Jose, California-based Alantec Corp has announced the PowerHub 6000 intelligent switching hub, aimed at departmental and high-end workgroup applications. It will support up to 36 Ethernet, and either one or two Fast Ethernet ports or one Fibre Distributed Data Interface ring. A full range of 10Mbps Ethernet media types will be offered, says Alantec, including 10Base-T and 10base-FL, and 100Base-X and 100Base-FX, all available in both half or full duplex versions. The hub will also feature an optional FDDI Fast Card, which can be configured for multi-mode fibre or single mode fibre. The three-slot, modular chassis has two 800Mbps internal packet channels and houses a redundant power supply. An optional packet accelerator will also be available, which is said to boost throughput speeds to over 150,000 packets per second, with simultaneous bridging at more than 125,000 pps. Full duplex Fast Ethernet hub-to-hub communications is also supported, enabling high-speed backbone data transfers between the PowerHub 6000 and the company’s PowerHub 7000 high-end backbone intelligent switching hub. Phase one of the PowerHub 6000 launch will be in June. It will comprise a base unit with a 12 10Base-T segment, a Fast Ethernet (-TX) Card, Flash Memory Module and a Universal Media Module. In August the company will add the FDDI Fast Card, a Fast Ethernet (-FX) Card, 12-segment 10Base-T module, a six-segment 10Base-FL module and the Packet Accelerator. Prices are not yet available.
