News Release

Cisco Drives Gigabit Ethernet Transition; Introduces New Catalyst Switches For Access And Aggregation

With over 1 million Gigabit Ethernet Ports Shipped, Cisco's Industry-Leading Switching Portfolio Underlies the Evolution in Gigabit to the Desktop
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Aug 19, 2003

SAN JOSE, Calif., August 19, 2003 - Cisco Systems, Inc. today continued to strengthen the market transition to Gigabit Ethernet through additions to the Cisco Catalyst 3750 and the Cisco Catalyst 2970 product families. The Cisco Catalyst 3750G-12S and the Cisco Catalyst 2970G-24TS fixed configuration switches combine Gigabit Ethernet connectivity with intelligent switching services at the network edge so that enterprise and medium business customers can deploy new applications with confidence.

To date, Cisco has shipped more than one million Gigabit Ethernet ports to its Catalyst switching customers, which points to an evolving concentration in deploying Gigabit to the Desktop (GTTD). "We are seeing an interesting trend in the network, with customers migrating to Gigabit Ethernet from the core to the edge. Many customers have upgraded the core of their networks, and we expect to see GTTD adoption begin to accelerate with these new wiring closet switches," said Kathy Hill, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Desktop Switching Business Unit.

New Cisco Catalyst 3750G-12S Series and Cisco Catalyst 2970G-24TS Add to Cisco Fixed Configuration Family Options

The Catalyst 3750G-12S switch is the newest member of the Cisco Catalyst 3750 family, which was introduced in April 2003, (http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/prod_041503b.html). The Catalyst 3750 is an innovative product line that improves LAN operating efficiency. It combines industry-leading ease of use and the highest resiliency available for stackable switches with Cisco StackWiseTM technology, delivering 32-Gbps performance. The Cisco 3750G-12S delivers a full set of edge aggregation features and supports Cisco Cluster Management Suite (CMS) software. Its 12 SFP ports reflect the overall industry trend of moving from copper to fiber as interconnects between LAN switches.

Portland State University, Oregon's largest university, is using the Cisco Catalyst 3750 to provide Ethernet services to their buildings on campus, greatly expanding their network's capacity. "The full suite of Layer 3 services, coupled with the roadmap of features that will be supported on the devices, makes them a cost-effective, high-performance solution for the long run. Also, the ability to turn on IP routing in the future, including IPv6, is very attractive to us as well." said Jon Snyder, Senior Network Engineer at Portland State. "We are happy with our choice of Cisco at the edge and look forward to using the Catalyst 3750 throughout our entire network."

The new Catalyst 2970G-24TS Series switch, a member of the Cisco Catalyst 2970 Series switches (http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/prod_030303b.html) delivers wire-speed intelligent services for small and medium businesses and enterprise branch offices. "The Catalyst 2970 is an affordable, yet feature-rich, edge switch. With 10/100/1000 on all 24 ports and four small form-factor pluggable (SFP) uplinks, it is very versatile. It can handle redundant power supplies for high-availability applications and has a full suite of security features such as Secure Shell (SSH)," said Snyder. "The advanced QoS features, coupled with the ability of the switch to grow and have more new features down the road, make it an ideal choice for the Layer 2 edge."

These new switches, in conjunction with the recently announced additions to the Catalyst 6500 Series and the Catalyst 4500 Series, deliver the robust feature set required to support the intelligent services required to support Gigabit Ethernet in all parts of the network.

Product Pricing and Availability

The Cisco Catalyst 3750G-12S switches are available now for a list price of $7,995. The Cisco Catalyst 2970G-24TS will be orderable on August 21st, for a list price of $5,495.

Cisco Catalyst 2970 Series
For more information about the Cisco Catalyst 2970 Series, visit:
http://www.cisco.com/go/catalyst2970

Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series
For more information about the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series, visit:
http://www.cisco.com/go/catalyst3750

Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series
For more information about the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series, visit:
http://www.cisco.com/go/catalyst4500

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series
For more information about the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series, visit:
http://www.com/go/catalyst6500