Fremont, California-based Grand Junction Networks Inc has introduced a range of Ethernet workgroup switches, the FastSwitch 2000 line. The 2000 line comprises two new workgroup switches, the FastSwitch 2100 and FastSwitch 2800. Each has 25 switched 10Mbps Ethernet ports and a minimum of two high-speed ports, said the firm. It also claims that both products support multiple Media Access Control addresses on every port, enabling users to connect single workstations (private Ethernet), servers, routers, hubs or other switches. In addition, said the company, the FastSwitch 2100, which is being aimed at high performance client-server workgroups, has two 100Base-TX ports for server and backbone communications. For its part, the FastSwitch 2800 has two expansion slots for 100Base-T, FDDI and, in the future, it will feature Asynchronous Transfer Mode plug-in modules, although no delivery date for these was revealed. The switch line also offers a choice of unshielded twisted pair and fibre media types for 100Base-T and FDDI, Grand Junction said. According to the firm, the 2000 range uses its newly developed application-specific integrated circuits and its ClearChannel 1Gbps bus architecture, to deliver wire-speed bridging on every 10Base-T port and an aggregate forwarding bandwidth of up to 320Mbps. Both switches support CollisionFree full-duplex 100Base-T operation for up to 200Mbps throughput for switch-to-server or switch-to-switch connections. All FastSwitch 2000 models, including FastSwitch 2800 with FastMate FDDI modules, are out now. The FastSwitch 2100 is $6,500, or $241 per port; the FastSwitch 2800, supporting 2,048 or 8,192 Media Access Control addresses, will be $6,300, $252 per port, and $7,300, $292 per port, respectively; the FastSwitch 2800 FDDI will list from $10,290 (unshielded twisted pair SAS, 2,048 Media Access Control addresses) to $12,290 (fibre DAS, 8,192 Media Access Control addresses).
