Rochester, New Hampshire-based Chipcom Corp has announced further products for its ONcore Switching System, launched last January (CI No 2,344). The new offerings comprise a mid-range version of the switching system, two Ethernet Media modules and a Token Ring module. The 10-Slot ‘B’ ONcore Switching System is said to provide all the features and capabilities of the company’s existing 17-Slot ONCore System, but is optimised for Ethernet-dominant workgroups and smaller ‘collapse points’ that do not require port-switching capabilities on Token Ring and Fibre Distributed Data Interface networks, says Chipcom. The offering enables a total of six Ethernet backplanes and is said to support the ONline System’s TriChannel backplane, which includes seven Token Ring and four Fibre Distributed Data Interface networks. It is also said to offer two ports which can be configured as repeated ring-in-ring-out trunks. According to the company, the ‘B’ System also includes built-in inventory management capabilities. This enables a user to interrogate every ONcore System element, from hub to hardware and daughterboards, for inventory information such as model number, software revision number and power requirements, says Chipcom. Migration to higher-speed technologies is provided via a switching backplane said to support multigigabit packet- and cell-switching. The ONcore 20- and 40-port 10Base-T Media Modules are based on AT&T Microelectronics’ T7204 Forespar repeater chip, the first integrated circuit to implement per-port switching for Ethernet networks. Aimed at companies using RJ-45 connectors, the Modules are said to support all of ONcore’s power management, inventory management and fault-tolerant features. The Modules can also support two daughter boards: a Private-Line Card for eavesdropping and intrusion protection; and a Network Monitor board for RMON, Remote Monitoring, statistics, says Chipcom. The modules are also said to integrate repeater Mangement Information Bases statistics on a per-port basis. Last up is the ONcore Token Ring Active Module-Switching Media Module. This incorporates PowerRing, Chipcom’s new Token Ring technology optimised for the ONcore architecture. Features of PowerRing implemented on the module are said to include active re-timing, automatic beacon recovery, wrong speed protection, dual ring recovery, jitter elimination and intelligent power management. Chipcom says that these elements are intended to significantly increase the reliability of Token Ring networking. The ‘B’ System is shipping now. The Token Ring Module will be released this month, with the Ethernet Modules shipping later in the quarter. No prices as yet.
