From: Michael R. Brown <mrb@mitre.org>
Subject: ATM Products Summary - 14 Aug 92
Organization: Communications Analysis and Design (D053)
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1a2
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 15:38:58 GMT

This posting is in response to the large number of information requests I
have received since my prior posting.

To date, I have received information regarding 3 ATM switch products
currently being offered, or will be offered fairly soon.  These products
include ATM LAN switches and cards offered by Fore Systems of Pittsburgh,
PA, and Adaptive of Redwood City, CA; and an ATM switch, bridge, and
network interface units from MPR Teltech Ltd of Burnaby, BC, Canada.  A
brief summary of each vendors' products and approximate retail costs are
presented below.  Please note that this material is presented for
information purposes only and is representative of my own personal
opinions/suggestions and not those of the MITRE Corporation.  As such, I
suggest that interested parties contact the POC's listed below for more
detail information regarding these products.

General Comments - It appears that a basic ATM switch, designed for LAN
applications, runs about $ 7,500 per port.  Most implementations offer a
100 Mbps or 140 Mbps TAXI multimode interface designed to the ATM Forum
UNI specification.  Some switches, such as FORE's and Adaptive's, require
that the end user device be equipped with an ATM network adapter card
which currently costs an additional $ 4,000 - $ 4,500.  Several router
vendors will be coming out with ATM interfaces later this year and early
next year.  This will allow the interconnection of Ethernet and FDDI LANs
over ATM backbone networks.   
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Fore Systems
1000 Gamma Drive
Suite 504
Pittsburgh, PA  15238-2940
(412) 967-4040
(412) 967-4044 (FAX)
Attn:  Mr. Dwight Dietrich


Fore Systems manufactures a modular ATM LAN switch with 8/16 ports. 
These ports currently support TAXI over multimode at 100/140 Mbps.  Two
versions of these switches are available.  The high-end version includes
a Sparcstation on a card which finctions as a switch controller.  The
low-end switch includes a VME to S-bus adapter which plugs into a
standalone Sparcstation (user provided).  For also offers 3 different ATM
adapter cards for Sun Sparcstations (S-bus), Decstations (TURBOchannel),
anbd Silicon Graphics (GIO).  Here are the part numbers and prices I have
received to date:

Part		Description	Price	Availability
----		-----------	-----	------------

ASX-111/8	8-port ATM switch	$ 48,900	today
		140 Mbps TAXI
		S-bus to VME bus adapt

ASX-110/8	8-port ATM switch	$ 58,900	today
		140 Mbps TAXI
		switch controller

ASX-111/16	16-port ATM switch	$ 72,900	today
		140 Mbps TAXI
		S-bus to VME bus adapt

ASX-110/16	16-port ATM switch	$ 82,900	today
		140 Mbps TAXI
		switch controller

SBA-100	Sbus ATM adapter card	$ 4,495	today
		SunOS Driver

TCA-100	TURBOchannel adapter card	$ 4,495	today
		140 Mbps TAXI
		ULTRIX driver

GIA-100	SGI GIO ATM adapter card	$ 4,495	today
		140 Mbps TAXI
		IRUX driver

Note:  100 Mbps TAXI versions are also available for about 10% less. 
Future options will include DS3 and OC3 interfaces.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Adaptive Corporation
200 Penobscot Drive
Redwood City, CA  94063
(415) 336-9500
(415) 364-0123 (FAX)
Attn: George Marshall
george@adaptive.com

**** The following is from George Marshall of Adaptive Corp. ******

On July 7 we announced the ATMX, an ATM switch designed for LAN ATM
applications and enterprise-wide private ATM networks.  It has up to 90
ports of 100 Mbps multi-mode fiber with an aggregate switch capacity of
1.2 Gbps.  It is a modular switch, with switching capacity added
incrementally as needed.  The switch supports multiple classes of
service, and supports boadcast/multicast in the switching hardware.

The switch architecture is time-space-time; multiple shelves, each a
time switch (cell bus), are interconnected by a space switch fabric.
The initial product being shipped is the time stage, with the space
fabric to follow later.

Switches are interconnected via either the 100 Mbps links (for local
applications), and a 1-to-50 Mbps HSSI link for wide area
applications.  The HSSI port can use the HSSI DCE port of our STM/18
T1/T3/Sonet circuit switch, or any DSU-type product with an HSSI
interface.

Also available are an SBus ATM adapter and the software to run IP over
ATM.  The switch supports Switched Virtual Circuits.  The ATM LAN
application uses the SVC capability to set up circuits as required.
The ATM LAN service offers an unacknowledged, connectionless MAC service
to the LLC layer that will interoperate with current IEEE 802 compatible
LANS, bridges and routers without requiring any changes to the
protocol stack above the MAC layer.  The switch also provides the
ability to logically partition users within an ATM network while
allowing them to share the high capacity of the ATM network; this is
referred to as Virtual LANs.

The switch is managed via SNMP by an easy-to-use graphics-based
management application which runs on SPARCStations.

We also announced that we interoperate with the first ATM-equipped
bridge/router on the market, the Router Exchange 7000 from Retix.  Both
the SBus adapter card from ADAPTIVE and the ATM interface on the Retix
router use the ATM AAL chipset developed by ADAPTIVE.  

A starter system (6 ATM ports) is $45,000; ports are added in groups of
six, at an average incremental cost of $4,500 per port.  The SBus
adapter is also priced at $4,500 per port.  Both will be available this
fall.

ADAPTIVE is a subsidiary of Network Equipment Technologies, so this
commercial ATM switch will be sold and serviced by N.E.T.'s worldwide
field organization.


George Marshall

****************

As an aside, I recently attended a seminar, jointly sponsored by
Adpative, Retix, and MCI, during which Adaptive and Retix gave a fairly
detailed briefing on their respective ATM products.  In addtion to the
basic ATMX switch, Adaptive is also working on a hub switch based on
redundant switch matrix with 10 Gbps throughput.

------------------------------------------------------

MPR Teltech, Ltd
8999 Nelson Way
Burnaby, BC
Canada V5A 4B5
(604) 294-1471
(604) 293-6157
Attn:  Peter Briscoe
briscoe@mprgate.mpr.ca

MPR Teltech is a subsidiary of British Columbia Telephone Company.  As
such, their ATM product line is somewhat different from that offered by
Fore and Adaptive.  MPR Teltech offers a modular ATM switch which
currently uses a 4-port ATM switch card as its basic building block. 
Switch cards can be added to create ATM switches with 4-32 ports.  Each
port has a throughput of 160 Mbps.  In addition to switch cards, MPR
Teltech also offers a number of interswitch communications cards and
subscriber interface cards.  These cards can be combined to create ATM
bridges and switches.

Part		Description	Price	Availability
----		-----------	-----	------------

3SDS		3 slot desktop shelf	$ 2,500	today
9SDS		9 slot desktop shelf	$ 2,900	today
9SRS		9 slot rack mount shelf	$ 2,300	today

ETAC		Ethernet adapter card	$ 5,900	today
TRAC		Token ring adapter card	$ 7,100	4Q92
FDAC		FDDI adapter card	$ 14,300	1Q93
VNAC		Video adapater card	$ 5,100	today
VCAC		Video compress adapter card	$ 11,000	1Q93

TXIC		TAXI interface card	$ 5,100	today
		100/140 Mbps (MM)
TSIC		TAXI interface card	$ 7,100	4Q92
		100/140 Mbps (SM)
S3IC		SONET OC3 card	$ 16,000	1Q93
T3IC		T3 interface card	$ 5,100	4Q92
T1IC		T1 interfac card	$ 5,100	today

A4SC		4-port ATM switch card	$ 3,200	today
		160 Mbps per port
A8SC		8-port ATM switch card	n/a	93

DCPU		DC power unit card	$ 490	today
ACPU		AC power unit card	$ 580	today
ALCC		Alarm controller card	$ 340	today
SPCC		Shelf program control card	$ 3,100	today
FCUM		Fan cooling module	$ 350	today
ABU		Air baffle unit	$ 220	today
FAUT		Front access cable tray	$ 240	today

OSTL		OSS software license	$ 25,000	today

Discussions with MPR Teltech indicate that a basic 4-port switch requires
the following components (rack-mount): 9SRS (1), ACPU (2), 
FCUM (1), SPCC (1), FAUT (1), and a choice of 4 interface or adapter
cards.  As example, a 4-port switch with 1 Ethernet, 1 T1, and 2 TAXI
interfaces would also require ETAC (1), T1IC (1), TXIC (2).  The total
retail price of this switch configuration would be about $ 32k or so.  As
an aside, I was told that an 8-port non-blocking switch would require 6
4-port switching cards, not 2.  Note that these switch prices are also
about $ 7.5K per port.  The interesting thing about MPR Teltech's
products is the ability to "build" Ethernet-to-ATM, FDDI-to-ATM, Token
Ring-ATM, and T1-ATM bridges.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

This summarizes the information I have received as of 13 August 1992. 
There are a number of other vendors out there working on ATM products. 
Some well known, others not so well known. I will be more than happy to
add to this list as additional information is made available.  Thanks to
all that responded.  Once again, please verify the accuracy of this
information with the POCs listed above.

As an aside, MITRE is setting up an ATM testbed to investigate
applications of this technology on behalf of our Government sponsors. 
Vendor participation (briefings, demonstrations, evaluations) is welcome.
 

Michael R. Brown
The MITRE Corporation
Communications Systems Division
Bedford, MA  01730
(617) 271-3289
(617) 271-7063 (FAX)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.cell-relay