ATLANTA - FALL 2001 VON - October 16, 2001 - ZNYX Networks, the leading global provider of embedded high-availability Ethernet for CarrierClass™ systems, today announced the ZX4500P with OpenArchitect - an extensible managed switch for the embedded Ethernet environment defined by the new PICMG 2.16 CompactPCI Packet Switched Backplane (CPSB) standard. The switch enables high availability telco applications with line-rate performance in CPSB-based chassis. It also eases and enhances remote manageability by incorporating the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) standard. VON attendees can see the ZX4500P with OpenArchitect in the ZNYX Networks booth 506.

The ZX4500P is the CPSB-specific version of the ZX4500, which is an extensible managed switch for the standard CompactPCI chassis. The OpenArchitect environment provides the system and IP protocol software for both switches. Configuration scripts and switching applications developed for the ZX4500's OpenArchitect environment will immediately execute on the ZX4500P's OpenArchitect environment.

"We are announcing the next member in a family of standards-based embedded Ethernet switches for telco OEMs and system integrators," said Connie Austin, president and CEO of ZNYX Networks. "The family of managed and unmanaged switches allow OEM solutions to displace proprietary system designs with standard components - lowering costs and speeding time-to-market."

The ZX4500P is flexible, providing many switching options for PICMG 2.16-compliant chassis. The primary use is populating the switch fabric slots to provide embedded Ethernet functionality for the chassis. Multiple ZX4500Ps, in combination with rear transition modules, can also be used in node slots to provide Ethernet ports for rack area switching.

The ZX4500P supports the new Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) manageability standard, which defines message-based interfaces for monitoring the physical health characteristics of devices. The switch will provide operational status information to an IPMI management application. End customers benefit with advanced notice of potential problems.

The ZX4500P also implements the Media Dependent Interface called Auto MDI-X. This IEEE standard technology makes cabling - especially between switches - faster and less error prone.

The ZX4500P with OpenArchitect is an extensible managed-switch for the telecommunication market. Equipment manufacturers and systems integrators embed one or more ZX4500Ps into their PICMG 2.16-based CompactPCI system chassis to provide CarrierClass, line-rate Ethernet switching between application subsystems on node cards or external Ethernet links. A broad range of "out-of-the-box" protocols, provided by the OpenArchitect environment, are available to establish routing, control and management policies. Integrators can easily implement other protocols to meet their application needs.

The ZX4500P with OpenArchitect combines the performance of a silicon-based switching fabric with flexibility of software-managed routing policies. The switching fabric component integrates 24 10/100-Mbit Ethernet ports and dual 1-gigabit Ethernet ports. The switching fabric maintains the forwarding table on silicon, providing the capability to filter and forward 6.6 million packets per second - full line rate performance on every port.

The OpenArchitect software component - Linux, IP protocol stack, control applications and the OA Engine - runs on an embedded microprocessor. OpenArchitect provides extensive protocols such as Spanning tree, VLAN, OSPF, VRRP and QoS. OpenArchitect enables rapid porting of other UNIX/Linux-based protocols, including open source RFCs. It also enables the development of application-specific routing programs.

The OA Engine is the bridge between the software environment and high performance switch fabric. The engine transparently moves Layer 3 through 7 routing policies, determined by UNIX-based IP protocols, to the switch fabric's forwarding table. This bridge enables line rate packet switching, executed on silicon, which is managed by open source routing protocols - a quick time-to-market, feature-rich protocol set.

ZNYX Networks is the leading global provider of high-availability embedded Ethernet solutions for CarrierClass™ systems. Equipment manufacturers and system integrators use ZNYX Networks technologies to create next-generation solution with high-availability, high-performance and strict compliance to telecommunications standards. The ZNYX Networks family of products and services provide design engineers with pre-built and pre-tested embedded network and switch solutions that provide significant "time to market" advantages.

Privately held, ZNYX Networks is headquartered in Fremont, Calif., with advanced research centers in Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Ottawa, Canada. Sales and professional service offices are in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, see www.znyx.com or e-mail sales@znyx.com.