Switches

Building a big data center and looking for a switch to match? How do 256 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports and nearly 1.7 terabits of capacity sound?

Buying faster switches might not be the only way to amp up performance across data center networks, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego, who this week proposed a network architecture that would enable commodity Ethernet switches to deliver better performance at a lower cost than their 10 Gigabit Ethernet counterparts.

Cisco take note: Juniper's new EX 4200 switch not only fills a hole in a leading competitor's product line, but also represents a credible alternative for enterprise access switching.

Extreme Networks has announced the Summit X650, a 24-port, non-blocking, 10Gb switch.

A university data centre may not seem the place to adopt leading edge technology, given that publicly-funded institutes are chronically short of money.

Researchers at the University of Sydney have developed technology that could boost the throughput of existing networks by 100-fold without costing the consumer any more, and its all thanks to a scratch on a piece of glass.

Foundry Networks this week extended its switch line to boost support for network growth, video and other high-power devices, as well as migration to IPv6.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) will spend $125,000 to upgrade its network switch infrastructure.

Cisco this week announced plans to fully acquire a switch start-up it funded and also unveiled the newest member of its data center switching line, developed by Cisco and that start-up.

10G Ethernet vendor Force10 Networks is changing the operating system on its data centre switches to FreeBSD, an open source platform, with the aim of improving switch performance for customers.