Hauppauge, New York-headquartered Standard Microsystems Corp has announced the EliteSwitch ES/1 ATX, a backbone local area network switch said to enable switching between FDDI, Fast Ethernet (100Base-T) and 100VG-AnyLAN, and provide a migration route between these, and existing Ethernet and Token Ring, local area networks to Asynchronous Transfer Mode. The offering forms part of the companies Unity Fast Ethernet strategy (CI No 2,661), being positioned in the intra-networking layer of this framework. The product enhances the multilayer switching capabilities of its ES/1 family of local area network switches through support of AppleTalk and IP multicast routing, in addition to the existing IP and IPX local routing, said the company. This enhanced routing/switching will enable standards-based virtual network functions, as well as an approach to defining logical networks across different physical locations, said the company. By supporting all local area network technologies with an even hand, Standard Micro claims that it has broken from the industry approach of providing modular uplinks out of simple Ethernet switches, giving it the flexibility to adapt to emerging Asynchronous Transfer Mode standards. The product is based on the same chassis as the company’s ES/1 and preserves customer investments by accepting existing ES/1 input/output modules in any one of the five available slots, said Standard Micro. The internal bandwidth of the new product has been doubled to 1.6Gbps from 800Mbps through the use of a Dual Protocol Independent architecture. It is also said to provide capability for future management enhancements, including full Remote Monitoring support, through software upgrades, although there was no news of these yet. The ES/1 ATX started shipping at the end of last month for ú11,000; upgrade packages are also available for ES/1 users.
