Foundry Networks Inc has launched its FastIron family of Gigabit Ethernet Switches and NetIron Unified Gigabit Ethernet Switching Routers. The FastIron range includes three models of stackable switches based on the company’s IronWare enterprise architecture. The FastIron Gigabit WorkGroup Switch has 2.5Mpps, packets per second, full duplex throughput, eight or 16 10/100Mbps Ethernet autosensing ports and one or two 100Mbps fibre or Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. FastIron Workgroup includes support for redundant power and a complete set of management applications. The FastIron Gigabit Multilayer Switch provides Layer 2 and Layer 3 IP switching. An auto configuring virtual router, FastIron Multilayer front ends overloaded routers in collapsed backbones. The NetIron Unified Gigabit Switching Router has eight 10/100Mbps Ethernet autosensing ports, 1.5Mpps full-duplex performance and complete forwarding and topology management for less than $10,000. And unlike proprietary schemes, NetIron supports a full suite of standard protocols. Enterprises can use NetIron as a very high performance, low cost collapsed router backbone. NetIron supports one or two 100 Fiber or Gigabit Ethernet uplinks and Foundry’s advanced Unlimited Intranetwork features. The FastIron Gigabit Workgroup Switch is available in eight and 16 ports for $4,000 and $5,000 respectively. The FastIron Gigabit Backbone Switch with 16 ports is $7,000, and the eight-port fiber configuration is $8,500. The FastIron Gigabit Multilayer Switch with 16 ports is $8,000, while the eight-port fiber configuration is $10,000. All the members of the FastIron family will be available in May. The NetIron Gigabit Switching Router with eight copper ports is $10,000. An eight-port fiber configuration is $13,000. NetIron will be available in June.
