HP pushes Gigabit to desktop

HP earlier this week advanced the cause of Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop by shipping a series of managed, stackable Gigabit Ethernet switches.

The two members of the series are the ProCurve Switch 2824 and the Switch 2848, which differ primarily in the number of ports offered. The 2824 has 20 ports of 10/100/1000M bit/sec Ethernet and four ports that can either operate as more 10/100/1000M bit/sec ports or support mini-GBICs. The 2848 has 44 ports of 10/100/1000M bit/sec Ethernet and four of the ports that are multi-purpose – or “dual-personality,” as HP says.

Both switches auto-negotiate the speed.

Like other vendors, HP is pushing Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop. HP is marketing the technology on the basis that it’s best for large file transfers and for voice, video and data convergence.

HP notes that it is already shipping PCs with Gigabit Ethernet connections built in, as are many other vendors. In fact, it will be standard equipment in all of the company’s desktop and notebook computers “in the near future,” HP says.

The switches can route between virtual LANs, and they provide support for a range of security standards, such as Secure Sockets Layer, IEEE 802.1x and RADIUS.

The 2824 lists for $2,500, and the 2848 lists for $4,900.

For more on these switches and other HP networking announcements this week, see Phil Hochmuth’s story in Network World: https://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/1006hp.html