This spring, Hewlett-Packard Co will announce a change of face in its policy of supporting only 100VG-AnyLAN, and eschewing the 100Base-T Fast Ethernet. The company is developing support for Fast Ethernet in switched configurations, but claims that its commitment to AnyLAN remains undiminished. At present, no product details are being released, although it appears that the Fast Ethernet support will take the form of switch modules for use within the company’s existing AnyLAN switches, rather than fully-fledged Fast Ethernet-only products. Brice Clark the company’s strategic planning manager at its Roseville Networks Division, says that the switch tends to be the point of integration of multiple technologies, and we want to make sure customers can use any technology [they want]. He added that as a general purpose network for workgroups we prefer VG. For desktop connections we’re neutral for VG. Brice denies that support for Fast Ethernet represents a significant strategic shift for Hewlett-Packard: what we said was that we wanted to make sure that VG is well-established in the marketplace, he says, which the company feels it has now achieved. However, the fact that Hewlett-Packard has been the most vocal proponent of AnyLAN will undoubtedly lead to accusations that the company now feels that it originally misjudged the market.
