PARIS, France, Oct. 20, 1993 -- Cisco Systems, Inc., France Telecom and Thomson today announced that the three companies are planning to show anSMDS/ATM interoperability demonstration at Interop Europe 93 (Paris, Oct.27-29).

In the demonstration, Cisco AGS+ routers will be connected to Thomson'sThomflex ATM switches and will run LAN traffic over a public CBDS(Connectionless Broadband Data Service), service operated and managed byFrance Telecom.

As France's eighth largest enterprise in terms of revenue ($25.8billion in 1992), France Telecom is now the world's fourth largesttelecommunications operator. The French operator employs 168,000 people insome 25 offices worldwide. France Telecom via its subsidiary Transpac,operates the world's largest public packet-switching network. FranceTelecom is pioneering in ATM technology.

Thomson, a world-class electronics corporation with 1992 consolidatedrevenues of over $13 billion and more than 100,000 employees, has two mainareas of business segments in professional electronics (Thomson-CSF) andconsumer electronics (Thomson Consumer Electronics). Thomson has more thanfifteen years experience in asycnchronous switching and has today completeddevelopment of its Thomflex ATM system.