3Com, which sees demand for high bandwidth networking growing, has announced the CoreBuilder 9000, a new switch capable of carrying both Gigabit Ethernet and ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) traffic.
3Com's APR ATM business manager Francois Tournesac said the CoreBuilder 9000 was built with a new internal architecture, with a switching engine, connected to a range of I/O switching modules on the switch's backplane which hold the actual ports.
These modules can be either ATM or Gigabit Ethernet-based, and the configuration can be changed, depending on the customer's requirements.
As the switch can handle both cell or frame-based traffic, depending on the type of configuration, Mr Tournesac called it a new class of enterprise switch, claiming that it was the only switch that could carry both Gigabit Ethernet and ATM.
Two switching engines, which shadow each other, and each module being connected to the two engines by five wires, meant the CoreBuilder 9000 had backups to prevent major breakdowns, he said.
3Com is planning to release ever more powerful switching engines. The CoreBuilder 9000 comes with either a 15 gbps (gigabit per second) or 24 gbps engine, depending on the configuration. He said the firm planned to release 35 gbps and 70 gbps models.