SMC offers small switches

SMC Networks this week introduced two 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet switches that the company says pack lots of features into a small space.

The network vendor focuses mainly on small and midsized businesses and home networks. The two TigerSwitch additions would fit into small businesses and remote offices of larger enterprise firms.

Both stand-alone, managed switches have eight ports of 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet. One of the two models also includes a Gigabit Ethernet port – 1000Base-SX for a multimode fiber-optic connection to a network backbone.

SMC claims that the switches have a non-blocking switch architecture. Features include quality-of-service controls, IEEE 802.1Q virtual LAN support, GVRP and priority queuing. The switches are one rack-unit high and 10 inches wide.

SMC’s press release says the switches have “all of the management features found on 24-port switches but without their cumbersome size or port density.” That’s the first time I’ve seen high port density cast as a negative – “cumbersome” – but the company does have a point in that sometimes what you need is a smaller box for just a few in a workgroup. SMC does offer the 24-port variety as well.

Both switches are shipping today. The eight-port version (the SMC6708L2) costs $277, while the nine-port version (the SMC6709GL2) is $416.