Foundry Networks, Inc., one of the most aggressive of the Gigabit Ethernet start-ups, will announce a second generation of high-end switches and routers at next week's ComNet in Washington, D.C. And this time, they are aiming for a slice of the high-end market.
Foundry is attempting this with a line of modular chassis-based products they are hoping are robust enough to compete with the likes of Cisco and Bay.
Dubbed "BigIron," the new line offers up to 64 Gigabit Ethernet ports, provides Layer 2, 3 and 4 switching and wire-speed routing. The switches top out at 256G bit/sec aggregate switching capacity, 100 million packet/sec, according to CEO and President Bobby Johnson.
Foundry will deliver the BigIron 4000 by April, and the BigIron 8000 by midsummer. Both products will feature Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 wire-speed multiprotocol routing for IP, IPX and AppleTalk. The BigIron products also will offer Layer 4 switching for application prioritization and server load balancing, features not available in the company's earlier stackable line.
The BigIron 4000, a four-slot chassis will cost $3,995. It has a maximum configuration of 32 Gigabit Ethernet ports or 72 10/100 autosensing ports and two Gigabit Ethernet uplinks.
The BigIron 8000 is an eight-slot chassis and will cost $4,995. It has a maximum configuration of 64 Gigabit Ethernet ports or 152 10/100 autosensing ports and two Gigabit Ethernet uplinks.
The modules include an eight-port Gigabit Ethernet version for $15,995 and an eight-port Gigabit Ethernet Management Module for $16,995.
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