Cabletron Systems Inc, Rochester, New Hampshire has formally revealed details of its Token Ring switching product line, and the biggest news is that – at least for the time being – the ES/1 product acquired with the takeover of Standard Microsystems Corp’s Enterprise Networks Business Unit is not to be discontinued. A question mark was hanging over its future after Cabletron’s chief executive Bob Levine said he had to determine how much would be invested in the [ES/1] technology. First out of the blocks in the new range is the TSX-1620, the stand-alone Token Ring switch that Cabletron takes OEM from Nashoba Networks Inc and sells under the name Concord. The eight-port device, which is expandable to 16, is shipping now and the company plans to add Nashoba’s Asynchronous Transfer Mode and FDDI uplink options early this summer – FDDI had been scheduled for this quarter, but according to Bob Travis, Cabletron’s product marketing manager for Token Ring and SNA products, development was held up at Nashoba for unspecified reasons. Although Cabletron just rebadges the equipment it gets from Nashoba, Travis says it has had an influence at the development stage – for example in the way that Token Ring traffic is routed to FDDI and vice versa. Cabletron has found that traditional IBM environments favor source routing, whereas for IP/IPX networks, transparent routing is the preferred choice and, Travis says, that it was advice from Cabletron that led Nashoba to develop the product to be configurable for both. The eight-port model is shipping now for $14,000 with the upgrade to 16 ports costing $13,000. Pricing for the FDDI and Asynchronous Mode uplinks will be decided nearer the time of their launch. The reprieve for the ES/1 – which is now to be called the ATX – seems to have come about almost by chance: we purchased the SMC switching division primarily for their 100Base-T technology says Travis but then we found out that they had a very good chassis-based switch. The ATX is therefore being integrated into the company’s range as a chassis-based modular offering, coming in above the stand-alone TSX-1620 and below the high-end MMAC-Plus. Although it now has a place in the company’s range, the scope of future development of the product has yet to be decided, according to Travis, since one of the biggest things we’re doing is to get acquainted with the ATX technology – especially because it is RISC-based. Cabletron will look at cost-reduction measures, such as integrating its own ASIC-based technologies into the product, but Travis added that we also see the RISC-based technology as fitting in well, provided the cost-to-performance ratio remains the same. Perhaps for this reason, Cabletron is not giving out list prices for the ATX, or any of its Token ring or FDDI modules, although the products are shipping now. While the Nashoba product has been fully integrated with Cabletron’s Spectrum network management system, the integration work for the ATX has yet to be completed, although this will have been achieved within 60 days, according to Travis. In the second half of the year, Cabletron is also planning to release the first Token Ring switching modules in its MMAC SmartSwitch Series. They are to be based on ASICs developed through the company’s relationship with LSI Logic Corp, will have a forwarding rate of 750,000pps and will be available for Cabletron’s MMAC, MMAC Workgroup and MMAC-Plus. Once the IEEE’s 802.5r committee has decided on its proposed standard for dedicated Token Ring, support for this technology will be added, says the company. Pricing is to be announced nearer to the products’ launch.
