SAN JOSE, Calif., October 18, 1999 -- Allayer Communications announced a complete solution for the design of network management in Fast Etherent, Gigabit Ethernet and Layer 3 switches. These intelligent switches allow web-based viewing and management of their traffic.

The AL300M is a complete network management solution that includes the RoXMan™ network management software and AL300A network management chip. This product dramatically reduces the time and effort to design managed network switches.

The RoXMan™ software works with Allayer's AL300A chip to collect detailed statistics about data traffic and the operation of network switches. The software reports this information to a network workstation console using the SNMP (Signaling Network Management Protocol) and RMON (Remote Monitoring Specification) formats.

This critical information can be viewed by a network or MIS manager using any standard Internet web browser. The web browser can also be used to troubleshoot and optimize network performance.

The RoXMan software is embedded in a flash memory and runs on any standard embedded microproces-sor such as the PowerPC, Motorola 68K, Motorola CPU32 family, Intel i960 and x86, MIPS R3000 and R4000, SPARC, ARM, and VxSim.

The AL300A is a high-speed chip that uses the RoX™ (Ring of Switches) or RoX-II™ bus to collect information from networking chips such as Allayer's AL100A, AL101 or AL126 Fast Ethernet switch chips. The AL300A can also connect to Allayer's AL1000 Gigabit Ethernet switch chip or to the AL3000 Layer 3 switch chip.

According to David Wong, Marketing Director at Allayer, "Our network management solution dramatically reduces development time and eliminates hundreds of thousands of dollars in development costs. This announcement is significant to the industry because our off-the-shelf solution greatly expands the number of companies that can design and market intelligent switches."

RoXMan Software

The RoXMan software is an intelligent agent that runs on an embedded microprocessor and collects, formats, and interprets the reams of detailed information captured and reported by the AL300A chip.

This information can include a vast range of details such as the number of small, medium and large data packets, number of collisions, and CRC failures. The RoXMan software can collect millions of data events and package them into charts and graphs that are sent to a network console for use by network and MIS managers.

The RoXMan software also has the intelligence to take action to rectify network problems and failures. As an example, the software can spot data packets that are caught in an infinite loop. This ties up the network and degrades bandwidth. RoXMan can take immediate action to eliminate these wayward packets and restore the full network bandwidth.

AL300A Management Chip

The AL300A uses the RoX or RoX-II bus to collect network management information from network switch devices. It provides all the MIB (Management Information Base) statistics required for both SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and RMON (Remote Network Monitoring). The device contains on-chip buffers that hold network packets. As they arrive, they are reported to an attached CPU via a separate bus.

Price and Availability

The AL300M package is priced at $35 in quantities of 1,000, and includes both the RoXMan software and the AL300A chip. The RoXMan software is sampling now with production in October. The software will be available over the Internet or on a CD-ROM. The AL300A management chip is in production now in a 240-pin PQFP (Plastic Quad Flat Pak).

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About Allayer

Allayer Communications designs, manufactures, markets and supports advanced semiconductor products that improve the edge network system by providing silicon solutions that make switches smarter and links between workgroups faster. The corporate name -- pronounced "All-layer" -- represents the companyıs long-range intention to provide silicon solutions for all levels of the OSI networking model.

Founded in 1997, Allayer uses a Modular Systems Standard Product or MSSP approach to design the most flexible, high performance, and scalable ICs for Ethernet LAN switching and fiber optics applications. Allayer products are used by systems OEMs who manufacture local area networking equipment in the edge network that provides the interface between individual workstations or workgroups and the enterprise network backbone system.

Founded and managed by an experienced team of engineers and managers from Allied Telesyn, Rockwell, Level One, Exar, Cypress, Chipcom, LANart, Oak Technologies and Cabletron, Allayer is well positioned to create leading edge IC solutions for the Internet network systems market. Allayer possesses advanced engineering expertise in network system design, analog and digital ASIC design, mixed-signal CMOS and fiber optics technologies.

RoX™ and RoX-II™ are trademarks of Allayer Communications.