More details have now emerged on the new Retix stackable Ethernet switch. The Santa Monica, California company says that the new SNMP-manageable SwitchStak 500 scales from eight to 64 ports, each of which provides dedicated 10Mbps throughput. The ports are said to be interconnected using the product’s StakBus 175Mbps external backplane. The model is based on the Intel 80960 RISC processors. Each system module adds eight ports and allows users to mix local twisted-pair modules with remote fibre modules. An expansion port enables connections to FDDI backbones, or 100Mbps Fast Ethernet server connections. In addition, Retix says that ports can be grouped into virtual networks to connect geographically dispersed users. The product ships this month and will cost $5,400 for the base model; the two-port Fast Ethernet module is due to ship in the fourth quarter, and the one-port FDDI backbone interface module will ship early next year. Prices are not available for these products.