WASHINGTON, DC -- May 19, 1992 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. and Digital Equipment Corporation today announced a joint agreement to develop a family of multiprotocol router products based on the DEChub 90 form factor. These products will connect and route messages between local area networks (LANs) as well as enable LAN workgroups to connect with enterprise-wide, multiprotocol networks.
Digital and Cisco will market and service the new products under their own names. Digital will manufacture the products sold by both companies.
The products will combine Digital's experience in standards- based Integrated IS-IS (intermediate system to intermediate system) routing with Cisco's multiprotocol routing software. The products will be based on application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology developed by Digital and used in the company's DEChub family of "smart-hub" LAN-connectivity products.
The new products will interoperate with the installed base of routers (assuming appropriate versions of software) both in Digital and Cisco customer environments. The products will support data link protocols (Point-to-Point Protocol) and routing protocols such as Integrated IS-IS, OSPF (open shortest path first), and IGRP (interior gateway routing protocol) compatible with the current product set from both Digital and Cisco. Additional product plans, pricing, and delivery schedules will be announced later this year.
"Digital provides a complete range of open, standards-based multiprotocol routing solutions -- from the DEChub products in the workgroup and branch office environments to the DECnis product family in the enterprise environment," said Ralph Dormitzer, Digital's Group Manager of Low End Networks and Communications. "Support for the Integrated IS-IS and OSPF standard routing protocols by Digital and Cisco, as well as support for the IGRP protocol will underscore the ability of the products from both companies to interoperate for the benefit of the customer. The resulting synergies will bring sophisticated LAN internetworking technologies to a broad base of users," added Dormitzer.
"The agreement significantly expands the strong relationship that has always been in place between Cisco and Digital," said John Morgridge, president and CEO of Cisco.
"Over one third of our 2000-plus customers work with Digital systems and networks today. Those customers were a guiding factor in our decision to work with Digital on developing new multiprotocol routers," added Morgridge.
"The resulting technologies will give Cisco and Digital customers small, easy-to-install, multiprotocol router products," said Morgridge.
Technology Migration Benefits Users
Until recently, routers, which are able to route messages across multiple local area networks -- were too expensive for smaller, office-size workgroups. Even LAN connectivity hardware -- the components that attach to so-called wiring hubs -- was relatively expensive, and too large and unwieldy to work in a typical office environment.Last year, however, Digital announced a new family of economical smart-hub components recognized by industry for its design incorporating the smallest form-factor available today: the components are the size of a video tape cassette and are small enough to plug into the compact DEChub 90 backplane that is mounted out of the way on an office wall. Users will soon be able to benefit from routing functionality in this small, cost-effective, easy-to-use package.
Digital Equipment Corporation, headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts, is the leading worldwide supplier of networked computer systems, software and services. Digital pioneered and leads the industry in interactive, distributed and multivendor computing. Digital and its partners deliver the power to use the best integrated solutions -- from desktop to data center -- in open information environments.
Cisco Systems, Inc., is the leading worldwide supplier of high-performance, multimedia and multiprotocol internetworking products, including routers, bridges, communication servers and network management software. Cisco technology can be used to build enterprise-wide networks linking an unlimited number of geographically dispersed LANs. Cisco is publicly traded over-the-counter under the NASDAQ symbol CSCO.
Posted: May 21 19:05:55 1992
