AT&T Co’s NCR Corp unit is plunging into the Asynchronous Transfer Mode-based premises communications switch market with launch of the UniverCell family of switches, which it says are designed to reduce communications costs and facilitate deployment of new high-bandwidth applications. NCR expects to distinguish its offerings by enabling customers to evolve their networks gracefully and cost-effectively. In the first phase of deployment, NCR SmartHUB XE customers will be able to enhance their existing hubs by plugging in Asynchronous Transfer feature modules, to be available next summer. The switch on a card will use AT&T’s Phoenix switching element chip developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories for fault-tolerant, cost-effective, high-speed cell switching. Each compact four-port ATM switching module will be able to provide up to 800Mbps aggregate throughput. The Asynchronous Transfer Mode switch will be complemented by a family of ATM adaptor boards for standard bus-based systems, servers and workstations. The SmartHUB XE is an enhanced version of NCR’s StarLAN 10 Network SmartHUB, claimed to be the industry’s first intelligent, secure 10Base-T hub. In the second half of 1994, NCR will introduce a scalable family of premises switches, also using the Phoenix technology. The UniverCell family will comprise three classes of switches: a workgroup switch, a departmental switch and a backbone switch. The first will be available in second half 1994, the second by year-end 1994. The UniverCells will be a subset of a broader AT&T family of intelligent, distributed switching products and services.
