Cisco Systems on Tuesday unveiled new Gigabit Ethernet switching products and announced a marketing agreement with Intel to work to accelerate Gigabit Ethernet network deployments, the companies said.
Cisco and Intel announced the new products and marketing deal during a Webcast, emphasizing the benefits of the low-cost, rapidly-deployable transmission technology that can be put on existing copper cabling. This is less costly than putting the technology over fiber optics, but still provides customers with the benefits of Gigabit Ethernet, the companies said.
The new Cisco products include: Cisco Catalyst 3550-12T, Catalyst 2950 Series, Catalyst 4000 Series 24-Port 10/100/1000BaseT Line Card and Cisco 1000BaseT GBIC (Gigabit Ethernet Converter). All of the switching products are available this month.
The new products are targeted at large corporations and mid-sized companies with between 100 and 999 employees, Cisco said in a statement.
Here is breakdown of the new products:
-- Cisco Catalyst 3550-12T: A Gigabit Ethernet aggregation switch that features 10 1000BaseT ports and two GBIC slots, using Category 5 copper cabling. It combines multilayer services, such as IP (Internet Protocol) routing, advanced QoS (Quality of Service) and IP security, Cisco said. It provides 24G bps (bits per second) switching fabric and offers up to a 12G bps (bits per second) forwarding rate to a stack of switches. The Cisco Catalyst 3550-12T has a list price of $US9,995, according to Cisco.
-- Cisco Catalyst 2950 Series: The series is a family of four, fixed-configuration, Ethernet desktop switches with 10/100/1000BaseT uplinks for mid-sized companies The series features 8.8G bps switching fabric and a maximum forwarding rate of 6.6 million pps (packets per second). The 2950T-24, which features 24 100Base TX ports and two 1000Base-T uplinks, allows for gigabit network speeds over existing copper cables. Pricing for the 2950 Series family is as follows: 2950T-24 -- $US2,395; 2950-24 -- $1,995; 2950C-24 -- $2,995; and 2950-12 -- $1,495.
-- Cisco Catalyst 4000 Series 24-Port 10/100/1000BaseT Line Card: The line card supports 10M bps, 100M bps and 1000M bps on the same interface. It allows the use of existing copper cabling and occupies one line card slot. The Cisco Catalyst 4000 Series 24-Port allows for a density of up to 120 ports. The line card has a list price of $US8,995.
-- Cisco 1000BaseT Gigabit GBIC: The Gigabit Interface Converter offers full duplex Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to workstations and between wiring closets. The GBIC costs $US395.
