Digital Equipment Corp, which has been quiet on the Asynchronous Transfer Mode front for some time, has announced a raft of enhancements to its GIGAswitch/ATM family to provide systems for high performance workgroups and mid-sized backbone environments. The company has also introduced clearVISN, a key component for its enVISN network architecture which, according to the company, uses policies, intelligent agents, and application integration to enable managers to concentrate on overall network management rather than device management. ClearVISN also features support for multivendor legacy internetworking products, including routers from DEC, Cisco Systems Inc, Bay Networks Inc and 3Com Corp. ClearVISN products will arrive in three waves: the first implements simple policies for network visibility; the second, due out later this year, will cover decision support, and the third wave, due in the first half of next year, will handle automated response. ClearVISN VLAN Manager costs $1,6 50; clearVISN Router Manager costs roughly $5,520; clearVISN RMON Manager is $3,309; clearVISN MultiChassis Manager for managing the DEChub and GIGAswitch family is $1,100; clearVISN Stack Manager – a graphical tool for configuring DEChub 90 and Mul tiStack system devices costs $550; clearVISN Recovery Manager is also $550; clearVISN Router Configurator is free with DEC routers, and clearVISN Flash Loader, which downloads firmware images over the network, comes free with both 64 StackManager and MultiChassis Manager. On the DEChub 900 switches there are two upgrades available, including version 1.6 firmware, which offers basic RMON capabilities alongside point-and-click virtual local network set-up and configuration for the DECswitch 900 EF and PEswitch products. It is available at no cost.
Modular interfaces
There is also an optional full RMON upgrade, offering support for all nine RMON groups. New GIGAswitch/ATM products and enhancements include a five-slot GIGAswitch/ATM chassis, a four-port modular line board with OC3 local net media options and wide area network signaling options including E1/T1 and E3/T3. The board can be used in a five or 14-slot GIGAswitch/ATM systems and has seven modular interfaces. The company has also introduced a 622Mbps line board supporting multi-mode and single mode fiber, DEC’s newly launched FLOW-master, the ATM Forum’s Constant Bit Rate, Unspecified Bit Rate and Variable Bit Rate, UNI 3.0/3.1 and IISP. FLOW-master is DEC’s ATM Forum rate-based flow control software which promises to guarantee zero cell loss for ABR circuits. Early Packet Discard and Partial Packet discard enhancements have been added for better congestion control. DEC also announced a version 2.0 of its Firmware which enables a GIGAswitch/ATM system emulated local network to be set up using a single console command. An upgrade for the 14-port chassis is due next month and will be free to download from DEC’s Internet site. Pricing for the five-slot GIGAswitch/ATM chassis is $5,800 and it will be available in September, while the four-port modular line board is due next month for approximately $6,300. The line board interfaces start at $775 for the untwisted shielded pair version, with the multimode option due next month. The 622 board is $16,530 for multi-mode and available in August, while the single mode version is due in October and will carry a price tag of $22,070
