Local company leads the pack in network technology; state-of-the-art development underway in Northwest

Business Wire, July 11, 1996

SPOKANE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 1996--Packet Engines Inc., the originator of industry efforts to standardize Gigabit Ethernet technology, is now working together with 50 other top networking and computer companies on formal standardization of this higher speed technology through the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance.

The Alliance represents a joining of major vendors committed to provide customers with open, cost-effective and interoperable Gigabit (1,000 Mbps) Ethernet solutions. The Alliance is working on technical proposals to be submitted to the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.3z Task Force, furthering efforts to standardize Gigabit Ethernet technology.

As a key contributor to the IEEE efforts to create Gigabit extensions to the Ethernet standard, Packet Engines sponsored the initial meeting of companies which later formed the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance.

Packet Engines has developed a Gigabit Ethernet Media Access Controller (MAC) for license by systems and semiconductor companies. A Gigabit Ethernet MAC is the core component required by anyone starting a Gigabit Ethernet development program. The MAC defines the protocols that control the way the computer equipment communicates over an Ethernet link.

Packet Engines started in Union City, Calif., early in 1994, and in December 1995 opened its primary technology development center at 12119 E. Mission in Spokane, Wash. In January the company added Gigabit Ethernet to its current 100 Mbps and 10 Mbps Ethernet technology, offering licensing capabilities for development or manufacturing purposes.

Company founder and president, Bernard Daines, is a Spokane native. Previously, Daines founded Grand Junction Networks, a company that first proposed 100 Mbps Ethernet to the IEEE. This technology will result in more than $1 billion in 1996 sales alone, as forecast by industry analysts at Dataquest, the global market research and consulting firm.

"By providing the critical Ethernet components early in the development of the Gigabit market, we intend to help vendors enter the market ahead of their competitors," Daines said. "Taking advantage of Packet Engines' technology skills, a company can begin Gigabit Ethernet development programs at a fraction of the cost of a completely in-house solution."

Packet Engines is a technology licensing company that develops core products for the networking industry tailored to meet individual customer needs. Customers turn the licensed technology into silicon chips and sell the chips, or use them to make sophisticated products. The Gigabit Ethernet Alliance now has 50 members including: 3Com Corp., Bay Networks Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Granite Systems Inc., Intel Corp., LSI Logic, Sun Microsystems Computer Co., UB Networks and VLSI Technology. -0-

Glossary of Terms -----------------

bit - Smallest unit of measurement for digital data.

byte - A set of eight bits. Computers usually manipulate data in bytes or multiples of bytes.

Megabyte - Approximately one-million bytes make up a megabyte.

Gigabyte - Approximately 1,000 megabytes, or one-billion bytes, make up a gigabyte.

Mbps - Mega-bit-per-second. A data rate of a million bits per second.

Gbps - Gigabit-per-second. A data rate of a billion bits per second.

LAN - Local Area Network. Technology for connecting computers together within a building or group of buildings. Using LANs, computers can perform cooperative tasks and share data and computer peripherals.

Ethernet - The common industry name given to LAN technology conforming to the IEEE 802.3 standard.

Gigabit Ethernet - The industry name given to the proposal to extend Ethernet to data rates of a Gigabit per second. This technology is currently being standardized by the IEEE 802.3z Task Force.

IEEE Std 802.3 - Standard developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to define Ethernet.

IEEE Std 802.1 - Standard developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to define Media Access Control Bridges, a technology Packet Engines develops.

MAC - Media Access Control component. Defines the protocols that control the way the computer equipment communicates over an Ethernet link.

Packet - A portion of computer data that is transmitted together across a LAN. In Ethernet, packets have variable length from 64 to 1,518 bytes.

CONTACT: Packet Engines Inc.

Tami Hansen, 509/922-9190