Colombes, France-based Thomson-CSF SA’s is expanding its Enterprise Networks division and has already opened an office in Santa Clara, California as it poises itself for the launch of its Asynchronous Transfer Mode and Ethernet products. It is also planning offices in the UK and Germany. The company’s approach is unusual, especially for a newcomer – rather than offering complete network offerings, it is basing most of its hopes on a high-end Asynchronous Mode switch aimed at backbone applications. Incorporating a 2.8Gbps full duplex switch fabric, the flagship Thomflex 5100 ATM Backbone Switch incorpor?ates four slots for interface boards, each of which can support four 155Mbps ports, or 24 25Mbps Asynchronous Mode ports, according to the company. An integral router is also incorporated, while for wide area communications, the company is also launching T1/E1, and E1/E3 adaptors. ATM Forum-compliant Ethernet and Token Ring local network emulation is supported and the product is manageable via Simple Network Management Protocol. Thomson is one of the increasing number of suppliers to target speech-over-Asynchronous Mode applications. To this end and for other multimedia applications, the 5100 incorporates three separate data paths for Constant Bit Rate and Variable Bit Rate traffic; Available Bit Rate and Unspecified Bit Rate and broadcast data. Depending on config?uration, the Thomflex 5100 Asynchronous Mode Backbone Switch is to cost between $32,800 and $73,600. The company is also planning to launch the Thom?flex 5200 Ethernet Switch, but the signs are that this will only be marketed as an adjunct to the Asynchronous Mode switch – according to Olivier Gibergues, marketing manager for the company, we are not looking at the total Ethernet switch market. The only thing that we want is to provide an interface between Ethernet hubs and the Asynchronous Mode switch. The Simple Network Management Protocol-manageable 5200 supports between one and five Asynchronous Mode ports and up to 12 10Base-T or 10Base-FL Ethernet ports. It is claimed to form relational local networks interconnecting endstations of the same protocol type and subnetwork address automatically in a way that is transparent to endstation protocols and applications. There is no word yet on pricing. Thomson is providing network management through FlexView, described as an HP OpenView- and IBM NetView 6000-compatible application. Far from seeing its limited range of products as a drawback, the company touts it as a strength: we want to be market-oriented and focus on one specific market segment, says Gibergues. He sees Fore Systems Inc as the main competitor and hopes Thomson can compete with the latter’s more extensive range by going through resellers since those people will provide additional technologies we cannot provide. Thomson has yet to sign its first reseller, but is hoping to have a network in place by the time the products ship in May. Whether Thomson can compete with established players such as Fore – which not only has strong name recognition but also assured interoperability with other products in its range – still remains to be seen.
