Multi-protocol routers from Cisco Systems Inc now support 14 different networking protocols, following the addition of Novell’s IPX, Apollo’s Domain and the the International Standards Organisation’s OSI protocols to the boxes earier this month. Cisco, which introduced the routers back in April, said that users could select the protocols they want to use today, and later on add new ones without adding or changing the hardware. Other protocols supported by Cisco routers include TCP/IP, DECnet, Appletalk, and Xerox XNS implementations from such vendors as 3Com, Ungermann-Bass and Xerox itself. John Morgridge, president of the Menlo Park, California-based company, said that market research companies were predicting that over 380,000 MS-DOS local area networks would be installed during 1989, bringing the total number to over 1.1m. Of these, Novell’s NetWare holds more than a 50% share, he said. Users are looking to integrate their NetWare-based networks into enterprise-wide internetworks, while the same integration process is taking place in the workstation arena where Apollo is a leader, said Morgridge. Another area of business will be those companies looking to move to the OSI standard, who can use the cisco router to begin the migration process, he said. cisco routers are said to operate at comparable or faster speeds to competing network bridging products, at up to 12,000 packets per second. The routers allow wide area networks to be built that link up any number of local area networks at any location, and are used by customers such as AT&T, Boeing, Cray Research and Philips NV. Cisco has offices in Paris, and is represented in the by London-based Chernikeeff Telecommunications Ltd.
