3Com Corp has announced its first remote access product to combine its own technology with that of its US Robotics subsidiary. The SuperStack II 3000 is said by 3Com to deliver dial ports at half the cost of previous 3Com products. 3Com has kept the SuperStack name, however, despite the fact that US Robotics had far larger market share – 35% over 7% – with its Total Control product line. The reason, it said, was the focus on corporate markets rather than the Internet service provider and carrier markets that US Robotics concentrated on. The new server, which is in stackable form for up to six remote access modules, has the capacity to take 30 Primary Rate ISDN or EI lines, which a 900 simultaneous digital or analog call capacity. The modules are interconnected with the high speed SCSI or RS.232 alternative, Apple Computer Inc’s FireWire – now standardized as IEEE 1394. 3Com claims that this is the first use of FireWire for a datacommunications application, and says it can handle transmission speeds of up to 200Mbps, with the possible upgrade of 1Gbps speeds. The SuperStack 3000 also incorporates 3Com’s HiPer digital signal processors (CI No 3,209), which reduce the cost of the product by handling two calls per DSP, rather than the traditional single call per DSP. The access modules are managed from a sealed Windows NT-based server, called EdgeServer Pro, designed to manage the authentication and security for access onto the local area network. The server also uses Microsoft Corp’s Steelhead additions to NT (CI No 3,120), now known as routing and remote access services, or RRAS, which 3Com claims to have co-developed with Microsoft. RRAS enables standard servers to act as cheaper alternatives to mid-range routers. The SuperStack ships in January, for around $275 per port.
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