Packet Engines Establishes Presence in Europe

Business Wire, May 11, 1998

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 1998--

Gigabit Networking Solutions Leader Introduces New PowerRail

Family of Enterprise Routing Switches to European Market

Packet Engines Inc., a leading provider of gigabit networking solutions, today announced it is establishing a direct presence in Europe.

Bernard Daines, founder, president and CEO of Packet Engines, will unveil the company's expansion plans and introduce the new PowerRail family, the industry's highest performance and most reliable suite of enterprise routing switches, during his visit to Europe this week. Packet Engines' European headquarters are located in one of Europe's largest hi-tech business districts in Sophia Antipolis, southern France. In addition to establishing a central European headquarters, Packet Engines will be opening a number of offices, including locations in the U.K., Germany and Scandinavia.

"This is an important market for Packet Engines and we're very excited to be expanding into Europe," said Bernard Daines. "We're seeing tremendous success with our gigabit networking solutions in the United States and have received huge interest from companies in Europe who are demanding high performance, reliable and scalable networking solutions."

Packet Engines has named John Axon, as director of the company's operations in Europe. Axon is charged with establishing Packet Engines' direct presence and sales channels across the continent. Axon joined Packet Engines from Bay Networks where he was Director of European Channel Sales.

The PowerRail Family: Industry-Leading Performance and

Reliability

In addition to announcing its entry into Europe, Packet Engines is introducing the new PowerRail family of enterprise routing switches to the European market. The PowerRail family was specifically developed to meet the growing demands of enterprise network backbones and data centers. The product family -- the PowerRail 5200 for the enterprise backbone, the PowerRail 2200 for the building backbone, and the PowerRail 1000 for the edge -- addresses the challenges associated with the rapidly increasing and unpredictable nature of network traffic.

The PowerRail family of routing switches is designed around four key customer requirements: Infinite Routing, mission-critical reliability, application-aware networking, and continuous investment protection. These components bring performance and reliability to enterprise networks, enabling network managers to significantly improve productivity and lower overall cost of ownership. In addition to their industry-leading performance and reliability, PowerRail routing switches bring advanced intelligence to the network. Using sophisticated policy-management capabilities, network managers can protect and prioritize mission-critical and latency-sensitive applications.

The PowerRail 2200 routing switch achieved industry recognition last week at the Networld Interop show in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was named Best of Show finalist in the Network Infrastructure category by Data Communications and LAN Times magazines. The renowned Best of Show Awards honors leading new products and services. The PowerRail 5200 won a similar award in October 1997 at the Networld Interop show in Atlanta, Georgia.

Packet Engines Executives to Speak at GigNet Europe `98

Bernard Daines will be presenting a Plenary Session: "Next Generation Ethernet: Gigabit and Terabit Designs" on Wednesday, May 13 from 11:55 a.m.-12.40 p.m at the GigNet Europe '98 Conference being held at The Business Design Centre in London. Daines will also join other industry experts on "The Power Panel: QoS The Last Battleground for ATM and Gigabit Ethernet" on Tuesday, May 12 from 1:00-2:30 p.m.

Brian MacLeod, Director of Marketing for Packet Engines, will join other members of the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance (GEA) to present a Gigabit Ethernet tutorial session sponsored by the GEA on Monday, May 11 from 9:00-10:45 a.m.

About Packet Engines

Packet Engines Incorporated was founded by Bernard Daines in 1994 to develop networking solutions delivering on gigabit performance and enterprise reliability. The company, a founding member of the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance, is now providing high-performance gigabit networking solutions directly and via a variety of industry partners. Packet Engines' products include high-performance routing switches, hubs, network interface cards and intellectual property licenses. Visit www.packetengines.com for additional information.

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PowerRail, Infinite Routing, Packet Engines and the Packet Engines logo are trademarks of Packet Engines Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Packet Engines

U.S.: Vivian Kelly Europe: Barrie Desmond

703/860-0707 44/1291-626200

U.S.: vivian_kelly@interprosepr.com

EUROPE: enquiries@multimediapr.co.uk