* HP offers 10 Gigabit Ethernet gear, gives preview of 2005 products
HP this week introduced two 10 Gigabit Ethernet stackable switches and gave a glimpse of things to come in 2005.
The ProCurve Switch 6400cl series of switches has two members, the 6400cl and the 6410cl. These are six-port stackable switches, with optional add-on modules for more ports, that are intended mainly for aggregating small clusters of Gigabit Ethernet switches and consolidating wiring closets.
The Layer 3 switches have several connectivity options. The 6400cl has six fixed ports of the current 10 Gigabit Ethernet copper standard, 10GBase-CX4, which limits its distance range but could be useful as an interconnect for close Gigabit switches that have 10 Gigabit uplinks.
The 6410cl has transceiver-based slots, so that all fiber-optic standards for 10 Gigabit can be used with the switch.
Both switches are slated for availability in the spring. The 6400cl is expected to cost $5,429, and the 6410cl is expected to cost $8,099.
Meanwhile, HP also said it is planning to improve its current 9300 series of switches with support for IGMPv3, SSHv2 and ACL editing.
In addition, HP hinted at new products in mid-2005, using something called the Edge Fabric. The company is pitching the Edge Fabric as a high-performance interconnect for network cores that relies on intelligence at the network edge. HP says it will use technology acquired from Riverstone Networks in June.
HP is advocating pushing network intelligence and decision-making to edge devices rather than keeping those functions in core network devices. The company says performance, scalability and security all become more difficult with an intelligent-core design.
At the same time, HP is quick to point out it will still support traditional architectures.
