Allied Telesyn's Rapier Family Sets New Standards for Layer 3 Switching Performance and Economy

Business Wire, Oct 19, 2000

Business Editors

BOTHELL, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 19, 2000

Rapier(TM) switches exploit latest in ASIC technology to reach new

price and value milestone with high-performance, direct WAN

connectivity and exceptional reliability in a standalone switch

Allied Telesyn International (www.alliedtelesyn.com), a worldwide leader in simplifying networking for businesses of all sizes, Thursday announced its latest entry into the high-performance Layer 3 standalone switch market with the introduction of its Rapier(TM) family.

Based on the latest in high-level integration ASIC technology, this new family of Fast Ethernet Layer 3 switches exploits Allied Telesyn's proven software expertise to deliver a non-blocking, wire-speed IP switching solution, with optional Gigabit uplinks and direct WAN connections, at a compelling price point.

In fact, with United States list prices starting as low as $98 per port(a), Rapier(TM) switches will make it possible for more networks to benefit from the many advantages offered by Layer 3 traffic management for data, voice and video.

"Rapier is the mass market's wake-up call to Layer 3 switching," said Melvyn Wray, Allied Telesyn's vice president of Corporate Marketing. "We have built a switch family that combines rich functionality, formidable performance and aggressively competitive pricing to deliver unquestionable value to networks seeking advanced Layer 2 and Layer 3 IP switching and routing capabilities."

Designed and manufactured by Allied Telesyn using state-of-the-art switching ASICs for high levels of integration and system reliability, the first three members of the Rapier family provide solutions to medium and high-density Fast Ethernet connections in both copper and fiber:

  Model          Fixed ports          U.S. List      Availability

Rapier 24    24 x 10/100TX             $2,995     Available Now
Rapier 48    48 x 10/100TX             $4,695     Shipping in December
Rapier 16f   16 x 100FX (SC or MT-RJ)  $6,495     Shipping in November

Rapier switches are designed to provide a cost-effective switching platform for desktop and workgroup connectivity and to serve as aggregators from Layer 2 switches and server farms. The switches in this family are loaded with standard Layer 2 features such as a robust management set, 802.1p traffic prioritization, 802.1Q VLAN tagging, IGMP snooping; and Layer 3 features such as IP RIPv1/v2 and OSPF.

"Nemesis," Allied Telesyn's stateful inspection firewall software and hardware accelerator cards for encryption/compression are available. Advanced routing protocols as IPX, AppleTalk, IGMP/DVMRP, PIM-DM/SM and RSVP are also available.

All models are available with a -48V DC power supply to meet the special requirements of telephone companies and Internet Service Provider's (ISP) co-located installations.

Allied Telesyn will continue to build upon the Rapier family of switches, with pure Gigabit Ethernet (copper and fiber) switches already planned for Q1 2000 release.

About Allied Telesyn International

Allied Telesyn International simply connects the IP world with affordable, highly reliable networking solutions.

The company has achieved and maintained its market leadership positions in the enterprise and small/medium business sectors by developing a diverse portfolio of network components that build flexible, efficient, cost-effective and reliable networks for the LAN, WAN and MAN, and backing them with solid warranties and the best support in the industry.

Core competency in universal connectivity, backed by leadership in media conversion, switching and fiber optic networking put Allied Telesyn in position to leverage its expertise in high-growth markets such as Ethernet-based broadband networks.

Incorporated in 1987, Allied Telesyn is headquartered in Bothell and has locations throughout the U.S. and the world. Allied Telesyn's products are available through a large network of consultants, resellers, retailers and catalogs.

Further information on Allied Telesyn International and its products can be found at www.alliedtelesyn.com, or by calling its headquarters at 800/424-4284.

(a) Based on U.S. List Price of Rapier 48