Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Crosscomm Corp has introduced its RiserSwitch line of Ethernet switches, offering 10Base-T and 100Base-T ports. The company claims the RiserSwitch range, the first of which is the Riserswitch 100, is the first switch to house a dedicated 33MHz 80960 RISC chip for managing virtual switched networks, adding that this enables managers to monitor both bandwidth issues and overall operations. Embedded application tools include RMON and Session Capture which facilita te reactive and proactive management. In addition, two levels of virtual local networks are available to improve traffic and control multicasts for efficient network operation. Level 1 virtual local networks, for legacy systems, enable traditional s hared Ethernet hubs, workgroup switches, routers and servers directly connected to the RiserSwitch to be members of virtual local networks. Level 2 virtual local networks, for workgroups, are constructed by port or MAC address association. At this l evel, overlapping virtual local network memberships are supported so that a station or server can be a member of multiple virtual local networks. RiserSwitch features distributed store-and-forward architecture, which unlike first-generation store-an d-forward designs, according to the company, the switching ASICs and packet buffers are distributed down to the port level to prevent any port or group of ports from consuming a disproportionate amount of system resources. This results in lower pack et latency and high reliability, says Crosscomm. In addition, large dedicated packet buffers at each port handle packet bursts and eliminate the need to segment and reassemble large packets. Full duplex operation is supported on all ports, providing a bi-directional communication path between two end points – this means transmitters can alleviate congestion at any time without impacting other devices on the segment. For these types of applications, the company claims it substantially increases the bandwidth over full duplex Fast Ethernet uplinks. To cater for high availability applications, the Riser-Switch promises port reliability, link resiliency, load sharing power and fan redundancy, and switch redundancy. The new switches are avail able in either stand-alone or modular configurations. Media types supported include Category 5 twisted pair or fiber 100Mb inter-faces and 10Base-T interface connections. The basic stand-alone RiserSwitch 100 in-cludes 14 switched 10Base-T ports and eight switched 100Base-T ports, priced at $16,000. It is available now.
