Madge Networks NV claims to have achieved a breakthrough with networking technology to speed performance of capacity- constrained networks at far lower cost than existing router technology. The Chalfont St Giles, UK company – registered in the Netherlands and quoted on Nasdaq, says that three years of research and development have produced its 3LS third-layer switching module, claimed to be the industry’s first product integrating the functions of both switching and routing into a single hardware-based switching system, and that it is the first and only network device in the industry capable of simultaneous switching and routing at full network speed. Madge claims that the 3LS, priced at $17,000 and available immediately, offers two to 10 times the performance of equivalent products from Cisco Systems Inc at under one third the cost. It says the 3LS transforms its core LANswitch product into a multilayer Internet Protocol IPX switch, capable of switching Internet traffic at rates up to 1 million packets per second on Ethernet and Asynchronous Transfer Mode networks, and asserts that the combined switch-router will remain compatible with existing router equipment, but eliminate the bottlenecks that so often cause a network to grind to a halt.
