Digital Equipment Corp is to incorporate an Asynchronous Transfer Mode interface into its FDDI-based GIGAswitch. The plan is officially under wraps until the product’s launch next month, but what is known is that the GIGAswitch will have a switching capacity of 3.6Gbps, 6.25m dynamic connections per second and full duplex Fibre Distributed Data Interchange transmission at 200Mbps. It can connect up to 22 FDDI networks, according to the company. The product will initially be available for FDDI only, but according to Mike Patricks, DEC’s wide area networking marketing manager, the switch is capable of accepting an Asynchronous Transfer Mode module, and its multi-switching capability means that it will not be limited to one device. Patricks denied that Asynchronous Transfer Mode support was a change of heart for DEC, which has up to now focussed on FDDI but, he said, it might be a change of public statement. He promised further Asynchronous Transfer Mode products when the standard is finalised.
