SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 25, 1993 -- Cisco Systems, Inc., and NEC Corp. haveannounced that they will join forces to synergize their respectivestrategies for implementing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology.
Over the next year, the two firms will cooperate to ensureinteroperable signaling implementations based on ATM Forum and CCITTspecifications. They will also coordinate plans to provide users withunified Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) tools for managing ATMnetworks.
The cooperative venture is being kicked off at this week's Interop 93August conference in San Francisco with two technology demonstrations. InCisco's booth (#2326), a prototype version of a direct ATM interface forthe Cisco 7000 internetwork router will be shown interoperating with NEC'sModel 5 ATM switch; video images will be transmitted between twoworkstations in this demonstration of ATM technology for local-area networkbackbones.
Demonstrating the application of ATM technology in wide-area services,a Cisco AGS+ router implementing the ATM Data Exchange Interface (DXI)architecture (in WilTel Inc. booth #702) will interoperate with an NECNEAX[R] 61E ATM switch (in NEC booth #5574).
In addition, the two companies will jointly conduct a seminar on ATMtechnology and migration strategies during Interop on Thursday, Aug. 26,from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco. Featuredspeakers are Larry Lang, Cisco ATM product manager; and David Boone, asenior product planner for NEC America's Marketing and Customer SupportDivision.
"This effort is the latest element in a relationship that began in 1991when NEC and Cisco joined forces to develop the first SMDS [SwitchedMultimegabit Data Service] router interface operating at DS-3 speeds," Langsaid. "In mid-1992 NEC began reselling Cisco's entire family of routersunder an OEM pact. Now our partnership is being extended into ATM, widelyregarded as the transport of choice for tomorrow's backbone networks."
"NEC is proud to be introducing the latest addition to our ATM productline, the Model 5 ATM switch," Boone said. "The demonstrations at Interopsubstantiate NEC's and Cisco's world-wide leadership in ATM, and ourlonger-term plans will ensure a comprehensive and interoperable solution."
The NEC family of ATM switches is designed for the emerging multimedianetwork. The Model 5 and 10 ATM switches utilize an NEC-designed ATMswitch fabric whose aggregate throughput is 2.4 gigabits per second with asophisticated cell buffering mechanism to provide the best quality ofservice even for bursty traffic. Line Interface Cards are easilyadded/replaced on a per-line basis so that the system can accommodatevarious types of line interfaces. NEC is developing various types ofinterfaces and services on this system to meet customers' evolving needs.
NEC America, Inc., an affiliate of NEC Corporation develops,manufactures and markets a complete line of advanced communicationsproducts and software for public and private networks. NEC Corporation andits affiliates worldwide are a $31 billion global leader whose 131,000employees are dedicated to the development, manufacture and marketing ofleading-edge computer, communications and semiconductor products.
