David Systems Inc, the Sunnyvale, California networking systems company (rather surreptitiously) part-funded by Ameritech Inc, has announced its entry into the 10Base-T unshielded twisted-pair Ethernet market, which it reckons is worth $500m a year: the company is offering the VolksNet Hub, claimed to offer low-cost unshielded twisted-pair Ethernet for the first time it costs $100 per port for simple networks of six to 40 users; the key is a low-power, one-micron CMOS process used to integrate the equivalent of 170,000 transistors with fully integrated IEEE 802.3 multi-port re-timing repeater function; the Hub has 12 twisted-pair data link ports for workstations, a standard IEEE 802.3 Attachment Unit Interface port, and 28 status light-emitting diodes, and connection to the computer is made using industry-standard 10Base-T Ethernet adaptor boards Western Digital and Racal Interlan have 10Base-T boards that have already been successfully tested with VolksNet, and a 3Com board is undergoing tests.
