San Jose, California-based Alantec Corp has announced the addition of a Fibre Distributed Data Interface, FDDI, module for its PowerBits performance tester, claiming it to be the only testing system for evaluating the performance of bridges, routers and switching hubs with more than two local area network ports per device. The product is a programmable packet generator which is designed to generate packets, send them to a device under test, then monitor the returned packets. Alantec says that it comes with 12 Ethernet ports, each with a dedicated 10Mbps of bandwidth, as well as support for the two new FDDI modules, for a total of 320Mbps of bandwidth; according to the company, the device can generate and check nearly 90,000 64-byte packets per second. PowerBits is available now with 12 Ethernet ports for $35,000; the two FDDI modules are optional at a cost of $14,950 per module and will be available from next month, Alantec says.
