Delivering on its promise of last September, Rochester, New Hampshire-based Cabletron Systems Inc has announced two new modules for its MMAC-Plus enterprise switching system, the MMAC SmartSwitch and the Workgroup SmartSwitch. According to the company, the switches are aimed at the wiring closet and workgroup applications respectively, and use application-specific chips to boost the MMAC switching capacity to 750,000 packets per second from 50,000. On the management side, the modules are also feature alarm thresholding, redundant links and simultaneous RMON remote monitoring per port. The MMAC SmartSwitch chassis occupies two slots within the MMAC, functioning as a chassis within a chassis, says Cabletron. It has three slots, allowing for the installation of one SmartSwitch Control Module and two Network Interface Modules. Of these, the Control Module supervises access to the switching backplane, and supports RMON for embedded network analysis, says the firm, while the Network Interface Modules initially available comprise a 24-port Ethernet switch module and a two-port FDDI switch module. Using the Ethernet module, the MMAC SmartSwitch can support up to 48 switched ports per chassis, or 24 ports when used in combination with the FDDI uplink module. The Workgroup SmartSwitch is similar, but stand-alone. It supports installation of one Control Module and up to three Network Interface Modules, says Cabletron, and can be configured to support up to 60 ports of Ethernet switching, or 48 ports when using the FDDI uplink. The MMAC SmartSwitch lists for $2,600 and the Workgroup SmartSwitch for $3,600. The Controller Module comes in at $13,700, with the FDDI and Ethernet Network Interface Modules priced at $6,400 and $12,400 respectively. All will ship within 90 days. Network Interface Modules supporting Fast Ethernet, Token Ring and Asynchronous Transfer Mode are to be added over the next 12 months, but no further details are yet available.
