Santa Clara, Calif. - 3Com Corp. Monday will announce a new line of low-priced hubs and switches designed for small and mid-size networks.
The new Baseline product family is part of 3Com's SuperStack II hub and switch line, aimed at networks with 25 to 500 users.
The Baseline products include the SuperStack II Baseline Ethernet hubs, with 12 unmanaged ports selling for $265, or $22 per port, and 24 unmanaged ports selling for $415, or $17 per port.
The SuperStack II Baseline Dual Speed hubs offer 12 unmanaged ports of 10M/100M bit/sec for $895, or $75 per port. A 24-port version costs $1,395, or $58 per port.
The SuperStack II Baseline switch features 12 Ethernet ports and two 10M/100M bit/sec ports for $895, or $64 per port. The SuperStack II Baseline 10/100 switch offers 12 10M/100M bit/sec autosensing ports for $1,595, or $133 per port. A 24-port model sells for $2,375, or $99 per port.
"The vast majority of businesses with 25 PCs or less have some sort of network, but they're looking to expand," said Eric Johnson, 3Com's senior director of Entry Level Systems. Johnson defines the target customers for the Baseline products as those with workers just now getting e-mail and Internet access.
Also new are several SuperStack II switches with Layer 3 switching capabilities. The SuperStack II Switch 3800 features 24 10/100M bit/sec autosensing ports and one Gigabit Ethernet uplink. The device provides wire-speed routing at up to five million packets per second and is priced at $9,995, or $399 per port.
The SuperStackII Switch 9000 is also getting Layer 3 capabilities, via a free hardware upgrade under the terms of 3Com's Technology Migration Program. The 9000 features eight 1000Base-SX ports, with wire-speed IP routing at up to 11.9 million packets per second.
All products are expected to ship this month.
