CONCORD, Mass. - February 12, 1996 - StarBurst CommunicationsCorporation announced today a joint technology agreement with Cisco Systems, Inc. tocollaborate on development efforts that will result in further extensionsfor the use of multicast applications over data networks. Under theagreement, the two companies will work specifically to extend thescalability of the StarBurst MFTP multicast file transfer protocol, whichtoday can address simultaneous file transfer to thousands of clients, tocontinue to scale and meet customers' growth requirements.

StarBurst Chairman and CTO Ken Miller said the pact is designed to addressthe burgeoning demand for information subscription services to millions ofconsumers brought on by the Internet and large private networks. Accordingto Mr. Miller, "As the Internet and large private networks becomemulticast-enabled, there will be a great demand to provideinformation-based subscription services to very large numbers ofrecipients. Working with the world's largest internetworking vendor, CiscoSystems, to increase the scalability of StarBurst MFTP is of tremendousbenefit in meeting all of the demands of mass market electronicsubscription-based information delivery services over data networks."

Cisco Systems, which already provides comprehensive multicast supportwithin Cisco IOS(tm) softwarethroughoutits internetworking product suite,believes multicast routing is quickly becoming a critical method fordelivery of many Internet information services. According to StuPhillips, Cisco's vice president of central engineering, "Multicast filetransfer will be fundamental for multimedia applications in the future,since the Internet is likely to be accessed by more homes and businessesthrough high-speed links.

"StarBurst Communications is a pioneer and leader in providing software atthe application layer to guarantee simultaneous information delivery acrossmulticast channels," Phillips said. "It makes sense for Cisco, whoseproducts support a significant majority of the current Internet networkinfrastructure, and StarBurst Communications to partner for providing newapplication tools that will broadly extend the use of multicast toapplications."

StarBurst Communications and Cisco expect that the first technology to comeout of their collaboration will be available in 6-12 months. Bothcompanies intend to open the resulting protocol technology to the publicdomain and to jointly promote its use as a standard.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the leading globalsupplier of internetworking solutions,including routers, LAN and ATM switches, dial-upaccess servers and network management software. These products, integratedby the Cisco IOS software, linkgeographically dispersed LANs, WANs andIBM networks. Cisco news and product/service information are available atWorld Wide Web site http://www.cisco.com. Cisco is headquartered in SanJose, Calif.

StarBurst Communications, headquartered in Concord, Mass., isrevolutionizing the methods for reliable, efficient and cost-effectiveinformation delivery over data networks of all kinds, including WAN, LAN,satellite, wireless or any combination forming an internetwork. Thecompany is privately held and venture capital-funded. More information canbe found at StarBurst's World Wide Web site: http://www.starburstcom.com