The NetWorld+Interop 2001 Atlanta trade show will be kicking off its exhibition Tuesday, but a host of companies were lining up
Monday to tout their latest switches, processors and servers.
Internet Machines Corp. was first out of the gate with its IMpower product family, a series of network processing and switching
solutions for designers of OC-192c and 10Gbps networking equipment.
IMpower consists of three protocol-independent chips — the NPE10 network processing engine, the TMC10 traffic management
co-processor, and the SE200 switch element — and the Development Workbench software development kit (SDK).
The NPE10 is a programmable, single chip, massively parallel network processor based on RISC microcores and capable of performing
packet processing at full duplex OC-192c rates. The TMC10 is a single chip, wire-speed traffic management co-processor — also
capable of operating at full-duplex OC-192c rates — which performs buffer and queue management functions, traffic scheduling, flow
control across a switch fabric, congestion management, and statistics for multiprotocol traffic at OC-192c rates. The SE200 is a
200Gbps protocol independent switch element providing 200Gbps full duplex switching throughput per switch element and scalable to
terabit speeds.
Internet Machines was followed by WiredRed Software Corp.’s e/pop Linux Server, which has been named a Finalist in the Network
Applications category of the Best of Show Awards. The e/pop Linux Server provides enterprise customers with a secure and scaleable
instant messaging and real-time communications platform for the Linux OS.
ProductivityNet followed up by unveiling its flagship ActiveManage network management suite, which enables administrators to control
and monitor their networks from any location through a Web browser or wireless Palm VII device. In addition to allowing remote
monitoring through a single, centralized interface, the suite also allows the execution of one command across multiple platforms
simultaneously. The company is demonstrating Version 1.0, for Windows NT/2000 environments, and Version 2.0, for multiple network
operating platforms, during the show.
Meanwhile, Cenatek is previewing its new Rocket Drive solid state disk (SSD), a new high-speed storage device which Cenatek says is
thousands of times faster than conventional hard disk drives. Cenatek says Rocket Drive delivers performance of up to 100,000
transactions per second. Like other SSDs, it stores data using memory chips rather than magnetic media. However, unlike conventional
SSDs, it attaches directly to a system’s PCI bus rather than through channel technologies like SCSI or fibre.
On the wireless front, MCK Communications Inc. unveiled its MobileConneX PBX gateway, which allows users to turn their cell phones
into extensions of corporate telephony systems.
Mobile users can dial into the MobileConneX PBXgateway from any cellular phone and, using the Interactive Voice Response system,
provide authentication and a dial-back telephone number to which the MobileConneX PBXgateway routes all incoming calls. It also
allows mobile users to dial internal extensions to transfer a call to a colleague in the office, initiate a conference call, or put
a call on hold. Unanswered calls are routed back to the corporate voicemail.
Network Elements Inc. stepped up next with its new Lithium 10Gbps Multi-protocol Module, a 10Gbps optical networking module with
integrated multi-protocol processing. It supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Packet-over-SONET, and SONET/SDH applications in the LAN, MAN
and WAN. It features a plug-and-play, multi-layer, optical network interface.
Next up to the plate was Raqia Networks, with its new RQDPC10G Deep-Packet Classification engine, a silicon-based regular expression
classification processor operating at 10Gbps Ethernet or OC-192 Packet-over-SONET. It is a highly programmable, single-chip solution
which provides wire-rate deterministic matching anywhere in the packet, including header and payload. Raqia said it boosts the
performance of Layer 7-based systems by accelerating classification and increasing throughput.