IBM Announces New Ethernet Switches
IBM's Networking Hardware Division (NHD) has announced mid-March availability of five new Ethernet switches, designed to provide the market with mixed media connectivity in a single unit at $303 per fiber port.
The 8275 Ethernet Workgroup Switch model 300 series is designed for medium and large businesses, while the 8275 model 200 series of switches will provide Ethernet connections for small- to medium-sized customers.
"IBM is becoming a significant player in the Ethernet space and is delivering on its promise to provide business partners with a broad range of Ethernet products that are competitive in price and performance," says Dan Del Vecchio, VP of sales, Data Kinetics Inc. (Mantua, N.J.). "As mixed media environments become prevalent, the new 8275 model 300 series of switches solve a big problem for customers by providing copper and fiber connectivity in a single box at a very attractive price."
The 8275 Fast Ethernet Workgroup Switch model 300 series includes: the model 326, which features 24 10/100Mbps copper autosensing ports; the model 318, which features 16 100 Mbps fiber ports; and the model 322, which features a combination of 12 copper and 8 fiber ports.
The 8275 model 300 series are designed to be high performance switches with a 5 Gbps backplane that provides wire-speed packet filtering and forwarding rate. They also feature Fast Ethernet copper and fiber uplinks for connectivity to backbones or servers. For additional high-speed links, these new models offer two optional slots for Fast Ethernet or Gigabit connections.
The 8275 Ethernet Workgroup Switch model 200 series includes: the model 217, which features 16 10 Mbps ports; and the model 225, which offers 24 10 Mbps ports. These new switches also offer a fixed 10/100Base-TX port and two optional Fast Ethernet uplinks for copper or fiber connections.
The 8275 model 300 series is priced from $119 per port and will be available on March 19. The Model 200 series is priced from $56 per port and will also be available on March 19.
--L. Greenemeier