Santa Monica, California-based Retix Inc has announced what it claims is the world’s first intelligent stackable Ethernet switch – the SwitchStak 5000 – although the company obviously left Kalpana Inc’s stackable EtherSwitch out of its calculations when making the claim. Details of the new Retix product are sketchy, but according to the company, the thing gives dedicated 10Mbps throughput on each of its eight ports, and can be expanded to accommodate up to 64 dedicated ports over a high speed copper or fibre external bus, the Stakbus. Other features of the product include an unspecified intelligent switching technique; virtual networking, and SNMP management support. A stand-alone version is shipping now with a claimed price per port of $844; the stackable option will ship in mid-year, when price details will be given.
