Ralph Ungermann’s First Virtual Corp, which is exploiting the breakthrough in Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology made by UK company Advanced Telecommunications Modules Ltd of Cambridge, is already onto its second generation desktop switch, claiming that the new one supports concurrent data, speech and video transmission at a cost of $300 per port and $5,300 per unit – a price billed as comparable with Ethernet switches. The new MS-Flex switch uses application-specific circuits made by AT&T Microelectronics to bring 25Mbps Asynchronous Mode to the desktop, with high-speed 100Mbps or 155Mbps links to servers and other Asynchronous Transfer switches. It includes a built-in Ethernet connection that implements local area network client and server emulation. The MS-Flex switch has eight full-duplex 25Mbps ports for the desktop and one local net emulation port, and can have two 100Mbps TAXI or 155Mbps OC-3c ports for higher speed trunks. Up to five MS-Flex switches can be stacked together, for aggregate capacity of 5Gbps throughput.
