New York-based Memotec Communications Inc has introduced the CX 900, a compact multimedia access switch that incorporates speech, data and facsimile capabilities, and represents a low-end version of its core CX 1000 product. The CX 900 is the fruit of Memotec’s change of heart, after it decided to abandon its original plans to introduce an ISDN bridge-router product, claiming that the market was too cut-throat to offer any prospect of success. It also represents the company’s efforts to crack the low-end market, which Memotec admitted was a market in which it was struggling on the price front when trying to sell the larger CX 1000. The product is targeted at smaller sites that need the flexibility to adapt to future protocols and build on the existing wide area networks by being able to provide corporate speech communications without additional public switched telephone network costs. The modular CX 900 supports Ethernet and Token Ring interconnections, any combination of SNA and protocols including X.25, Asynchronous Transfer Mode and ISDN. For local network interconnection over Frame Relay, the CX900 supports transparent bridging, Source Routing, Source Route Transparent, TCP/IP, IPX, RIP, and Open Shortest Path First routing with filtering and spoofing. On the IBM Corp protocols front, it supports SNA/SDLC and SDLC-LLC2 conversation which enables network managers to migrate from leased lines to Frame Relay. In addition, the ISDN module provides a Basic Rate Interface that can be used for wide area network access or back-up connection. Pricing details have not yet been finalized for the modular product, but a CX 900 supporting local network and speech traffic will come in at just under $3,500; the company says it will start shipping in the US the end of May, with deliveries in Europe expected to follow a month later.
