Cabletron Systems Inc, Rochester, New Hampshire has gone to Cisco Systems Inc the for Fibre Distributed Data Interface and Token Ring router technology from the latter’s modular mid-range 4500 series: the hardware technologies – as well as Cisco’s IOS Internetwork Operating System software – have been integrated into new modules for Cabletron’s MMAC-Plus intelligent switching hubs. With the new modules, Cabletron is targeting the high end of the market: the FDDI module, called the 9F106-01, has one port for connection to the MMAC-Plus’s Flexible Network Bus, and an FDDI Dual Attach Station. The 9T101-04 Token Ring Router Module connects the Flexible Bus to four Token Ring front panel ports; they are both to ship this month, with the FDDI module at $32,500, and the Token Ring module priced at $33,600. Cabletron already offers FDDI and Token Ring concentrator and switching modules for the MMAC-Plus, but wanted Cisco’s technology because we don’t have anything for routing between the backplane and the front panel, according to Wade Appleman, director of advanced products engineering. He added that we could have put our own routing code on the FDDI modules, but Cisco’s Internetwork Operating System technology is that much more robust, and better served for the enterprise. The same reasoning is given with regard to the Token Ring module.
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