/

SNT stands by ATM technology

By Jodi Daniels

Lance Smith may be just the guy who can bring ATM back from the dead.

Switched Network Technologies, Inc.'s (SNT) president and CEO is taking a new tack on competing in the ATM LAN workgroup market, and the industry is starting to take note.

The start-up offers software for its switches and adapters that extends ATM's ability to deliver guaranteed bandwidth beyond applications written to take advantage of this quality-of-service (QoS) technology. This means SNT's ATM gear can be used to deliver bandwidth and performance guarantees to applications that are not inherently QoS-aware, such as IP-based video and audio streaming programs.

The SNT software runs on the company's EntraLAN ATM devices - a 5.8G bit/sec switch, 155M bit/sec server adapters and 25M bit/sec and 155M bit/sec desktop computer adapters - and lets customers assign QoS parameters to virtual LANs. The equipment could simultaneously participate in virtual LANs carrying run-of-the-mill traffic and others carrying performance-sensitive applications.

"If Andy Bechtolsheim [former CEO of Gigabit Ethernet vendor Granite Systems, which was acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc.] once declared ATM to be dead, then I'll declare IP to be a technical accident that never should have happened," Smith says.

But Smith admits that IP, a protocol that's been around for 25 years, is here to stay. "It's like moving from analog TV to [High Definition TV]: People know that there is a better way of doing this, but just don't feel like putting up a new antenna," he says.

So the challenge for SNT is to get people to stop and take a second look at ATM.

SNT plans to bolster its EntraLAN product line in the first quarter of 1998 with improved QoS capabilities. In addition, the company will introduce a 10G bit/sec nonblocking ATM backbone switch that supports multiple OC-12 interfaces. It also plans to expand Ethernet connectivity for its current edge devices.

But some analysts question whether that will be enough.

"In terms of a company selling ATM equipment into the LAN, that's obviously a position that's very hard to be in," says Esmerelda Silva, an analyst at International Data Corp., a market research firm in Framingham, Mass. "Even an established ATM vendor like FORE [Systems, Inc.] has seen some difficulties."

Smith agrees and says 1998 will be a make-or-break year for SNT.

"We're the last of the crazies to have started an ATM company. We are the only pure ATM start-up still standing today," he says. "[1998] will be critical for us, both for revenue and partnerships."