Digital's Virtual Router Cluster Capability Ensures Unprecedented
High-Availability For Networks

Company Also Announces Enhancements To DECbrouter 90 Software

MAYNARD, Mass. -- February 13, 1995 -- A unique new Virtual Router Cluster
capability providing rapid recovery from network failures ten times faster
than the closest competitor was introduced today by Digital Equipment
Corporation. This new capability is a feature of the DECNIS family of
high-performance multiprotocol routers.

New hardware capabilities for the DECNIS provide full Ethernet speeds
across the wide-area network using high-speed, cost-effective services
such as SMDS. In addition, Digital announced improved interoperability
between the DECNIS backbone router and its best-selling DECbrouter 90
access router when using frame relay and Novell IPX networks. These
capabilities raise wide-area backbone reliability, performance, and
interoperability to new dimensions.

Digital's Virtual Router Cluster capability further improves the
self-healing and automatic reconfiguration properties of today's
high-performance backbone networks. "The most important benefit of the
Virtual Router Cluster is that it greatly improves network availability,"
said Bill Maro, vice president of product marketing and engineering for
Digital's Network Product Business. "We've responded to the needs of
telecommunications providers, banks, process control industries, and other
customers whose businesses depend on rapid, reliable network response.
These users no longer have to worry that their network applications stop
if a router, a LAN connection, or a routing circuit fails."

Fast Recovery with Virtual Router Clusters

The Virtual Router Cluster's mechanism employs a unique addressing scheme
that lets it respond to network failures transparently to the user. "A
group of routers on a LAN are defined as a routing cluster, and each
cluster has a single virtual address to which all end systems send their
off-LAN traffic," said Richard Benwell, Digital's Routers Marketing
Manager. "If the cluster's primary router or any of its connections fail,
then another router in the cluster detects the failure and takes over,
using the same virtual address."

The use of a single virtual address makes the router switches transparent
to the end systems. "Relying on end systems to detect a router change can
sometimes take several minutes," said Benwell. "With the Virtual Router
Cluster feature, recovery can take less than three seconds. Network
applications remain up and connectivity is maintained."

New Hardware Capabilities

The new MPC-II card provides a console port for out-of-band management of
the enhanced version of DECNIS from a VT100-compatible terminal. In
addition to 16 MB of dynamic memory for storing larger routing tables and
4 MB of FLASH memory for storing multiple configuration files, the card
has a console port with full modem control for local or remote connection
over a dial-up line. An on-board management utility allows the network
manager to manage both the local DECNIS router and other Digital routers
across the network.

For users who require high-speed routing and bridging, the new DEC
WANcontroller 622/HS sync card provides two ports, each supporting line
speeds at up to 12 Mbps. The card supports connections over PPP, HDLC,
Frame Relay, and SMDS, and also can be connected to multiple T1/E1 leased
lines.

Software Features Improve Performance

Virtual Routing Clusters and Resilient Routing Circuits are included in the
DECNIS V3.0 software release. This release also contains other important
features which will significantly enhance the end-to-end performance of a
network. Packet Prioritization, for example, helps avoid application
delays on low-bandwidth WANs and provides simple packet filtering; pattern
matching can filter out bridge traffic and thus greatly reduce network
costs; SMDS DXI supports high-speed routing over SMDS services and IPX WAN
supports native Novell Netware over leased-line circuits, providing
interoperability with DECbrouter 90 products and other vendors' routers.

Price and Availability

The price of the DECNIS 500/600 multiprotocol router ranges from $8,750 to
$18,000, depending on configuration. Software upgrades for existing
customers are priced at $250 for the MS/DOS load kit and $450 for the VMS
and OSF/1 load kits. Price of the DECNIS MPC-II console is $6,500, while
the DEC WANcontroller 622/HS is priced at $7,500. All products are
available immediately.

Enhanced DECbrouter 90

Digital's best-selling access router, the DECbrouter 90, is now shipping
with Cisco System's V10.06 software. In addition to the V10 features, this
software also includes improvements for interoperability with Digital's
DECNIS 500/600 backbone routers. These include wide area point-to-point
connection over frame relay circuits and support for additional protocols
over PPP data links. The enhanced DECbrouter 90 is available now. Prices
are $3,290 for the single serial port version and $3,850 for the dual
serial port version. Existing DECbrouter 90 customers can order the new
software from their local Digital distributor.

Building on a strong tradition of technological excellence, Digital is
leading the way in the networking industry today. According to revenue
figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC), Dataquest, and
Rising Star Research, Digital holds the number three market position in
routers, hubs and LAN switching markets, and holds the number two position
in FDDI technology. Digital's Network Product Business has pioneered a
new, converged model for networking in which hubs, routers and switches
are deployed on an integrated platform. In addition, Digital's expertise
in network integration services has connected more than 12 million users
worldwide.

Digital Equipment Corporation is the world's leader in open client/server
solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide information
systems. Digital's scalable Alpha platforms, storage, networking,
software, and services, together with industry-focused solutions from
business partners, help organizations compete and win in today's global
marketplace.

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