Westborough, Massachusetts-based Proteon Inc says that under its agreement with IBM Corp’s Networking Hardware Division (CI No 2,343), it it is still to be decided whether they share production lines, but the companies will definitely share manufacturing and output costs. Proteon says the routers will be in the Cisco 2000 price band, pitching them from about $3,200, and will probably appear as a development to its DNX 300 family rather than a new range. IBM’s implementation plans are as yet unannounced, but could take the form of enhancements to its 6611 router family. Proteon is making much of the deal, saying the Systems Network Architecture boost provided by DLSw and APPN/HPR to its product line, coupled with the endorsement IBM is giving its Bandwidth Reservation technology, will leverage the company’s position in the IBM installed-base routing market. The company dismisses charges of being premature with its implementation of the as yet unratified DLSw interoperability standard, saying that these claims are a purely competitive response from other vendors; the same was said of early implementors of Ethernet and Token Ring, Proteon counters.
