Network Systems Corp, Minneapolis has announced a new architecture for its channel networking and internetworking products, which expands the DX architecture introduced in 1988. The UK end of the company, in Ascot, Berkshire says that the Data eXchange Extended, DXE, chassis can be configured in three basic ways, either as a six-board unit with a 400Mb backplane, as a 12-board unit with an 800Mb backplane, or as a dual six-board, with two independent units each with a 400Mb backplane in the same chassis. The new chassis uses the same boards as the DX products, as well as providing full backward compatibility. Network Systems says DXE-based products will be available in limited quantities in March, with volume production in April. Also announced is Central Express, a multiple router package that the company says functions as a collapsed backbone with scalability, redundancy, hot-swap units and fault tolerance. The product combines existing 6600 bridge-routers interconnected with an external optical bypass switch to a Fibre Distributed Data Interchange backplane, and can have a variety of media interfaces including Token Ring, Ethernet, and T1. The list price is UKP11,000 and availability is immediate.
