News and Events

2004

FORCE10 INTRODUCES TERASCALE E-SERIES SWITCH/ROUTERS WITH THE INDUSTRY’S BEST GIGABIT AND 10 GIGABIT ETHERNET DENSITY, THROUGHPUT AND PRICE

MILPITAS, Calif., September 13, 2004 — Force10 Networks, the pioneer in Ethernet innovation, today introduced the TeraScale E-Series family of switch/routers that delivers the industry’s highest Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet port densities, unprecedented price/performance and best-in-class resiliency. The Force10 TeraScale E-Series supports 56 line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 672 line-rate Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single chassis, more than twice the density of its nearest competitor. In addition, the TeraScale E-Series can process one billion packets per second, surpassing all competitive benchmarks to rank as the world’s first true Terabit switch/router.

“As grid computing power grows, line-rate, high density switches and routers become critical to ensuring that our network is both fast and manageable,” said Nathaniel Mendoza, lead network test engineer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), which recently deployed the Force10 TeraScale E-Series. “With higher density, we can connect more nodes with fewer switches, significantly simplifying the network by eliminating the interconnecting layer required with lower density equipment.”

The TeraScale E-Series increases resiliency and performance by expanding upon Force10’s robust switching and routing features with hardware-based port mirroring, quality of service, security and link aggregation enhancements. Additionally, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series features hardware-based IPv6 forwarding at line rate and supports an industry-leading one million access control lists (ACLs), providing scalable protection against denial of service attacks.

TeraScale E-Series Establishes New Industry Firsts
Based on independent tests conducted by The Tolly Group, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series was named the “First” Terabit switch/router and “Foremost” in 10 Gigabit Ethernet density. Additionally, the TeraScale E-Series establishes the following industry firsts:

• The industry’s highest throughput, processing one billion packets per second
• The industry’s highest scalability, supporting one million ACLs with no performance degradation
• The industry’s highest Gigabit Ethernet density with 672 line-rate ports
• The industry’s highest 10 Gigabit Ethernet density with 56 line-rate ports
• The industry’s first line-rate 48-port Gigabit Ethernet line card

The complete report is available at www.force10networks.com/products/reports.asp.

“For industries with rapidly growing bandwidth needs, higher density switches provide the capacity to accommodate future network growth and long-term investment protection,” said Mark Bieberich, program manager at the Yankee Group, a global leader in communications and networking research and consulting. “The Force10 TeraScale E-Series, by combining high Gigabit and 10 Gigabit densities with greater resiliency, drives down both capital and operating expenses by reducing the number of switching and routing elements required to build and run a network.”

The unprecedented density and throughput of the TeraScale E-Series provides exceptional capital and operational savings. For example, to build a line-rate 270-node data center with four 10 Gigabit uplinks, the Force10 solution uses one TeraScale E-Series with a list price of $380,000. A competitive solution requires up to five separate switching platforms with an estimated list price of nearly $1.5 million.

“With the introduction of the TeraScale E-Series, Force10 is once again setting the industry bar with a new generation of products that enable higher performance at a lower cost of ownership,” said Marc Randall, president and CEO of Force10 Networks. “The unparalleled density and resiliency of the TeraScale E-Series puts it in a category of its own.”

With a backplane capacity of 5 Terabits per second, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series is the only switch/router designed from the ground up to support line-rate 100 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. Capable of supporting several generations of density increases, the built-in capacity of the TeraScale E-Series delivers long-term investment protection.

The Force10 TeraScale E-Series delivers industry-leading density and resiliency to enterprises, service providers, government organizations, data centers, research facilities and educational institutions. As 10 Gigabit Ethernet adoption grows beyond the research and laboratory environments, Force10 continues to expand its customer base, which includes MCI, the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, NTT-ME, Veritas DGC and the Cornell Theory Center.

Force10’s TeraScale E-Series comes to market as 10 Gigabit Ethernet port prices are becoming increasingly competitive with Gigabit Ethernet, driving new deployments beyond early adopter markets. According to Dell’Oro Group, component cost reductions and increased line card densities will drive further 10 Gigabit Ethernet price reductions and widespread adoption of the technology in enterprises. The industry research firm estimates that the 10 Gigabit Ethernet market will reach $2.4 billion by 2008.

Product Description	US List	Availability
TeraScale E-Series E600/E1200
E600/E1200 route processor module	$30,000	Now
4-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet line card (XFP optics)	$48,000	Now
48-port Gigabit Ethernet line card (SFP optics)	$47,500	Now
48-port 10/100/1000Base-T line card (RJ-45 interfaces)	$37,500	Now
TeraScale E-Series E300
E300 route processor module	$30,000	Now
24-port Gigabit Ethernet line card (SFP optics)	$30,000	Now
2-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet line card (XFP optics)	$27,500	Now
XFP Optics
10 Gigabit XFP optics module – SR/SW	$3,000	Now
10 Gigabit XFP optics module – LR/LW (10KM)	$4,000	Now
10 Gigabit XFP optics module – ER/EW (40KM)	$12,000	Q1 2005
10 Gigabit XFP optics module – ZR/ZW (80KM)	$15,000	Q1 2005

Contact:
Peter Ruzicka
Force10 Networks Inc.
408-965-5151
pruzicka@force10networks.com

Contact:
Jennifer Arculeo
Force10 Networks Inc.
408-965-5194
jarculeo@force10networks.com

About Force10 Networks
Force10 Networks is the pioneer in building and securing high performance networks. Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-class resiliency and massive scalability, Force10’s TeraScale E-Series switch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase network availability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world’s largest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10 Networks. For additional information, please visit www.force10networks.com.

Force10 Networks and E-Series are registered trademarks, and P-Series, S-Series, TeraScale and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.