CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA December 13, 2007 Reaffirming the companys commitment to delivering leading edge solutions for the VME environment, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms today announced two new Gigabit Ethernet switches. The NETernity™ GBX24 is a fully rugged 6U VME enabled 24-port Gigabit Ethernet fully-managed Layer 2/3 switch, while the NETernity VXS24 provides 24-port Gigabit Ethernet functionality for VXS (VITA 41.3) environments and is unique in offering a fully managed Layer 3 capability. Both feature full support for IPv6 – a key requirement of the Department of Defense – and both occupy only a single chassis slot. Management of the two switches is implemented using FASTPATH, providing the military industry standard for high performance, ease of use and compatibility across switches.
The rugged GBX24, which is designed to meet the demanding requirements of network switching in harsh military/aerospace environments (it is available in both air- and conduction-cooled formats) , provides 24 ports to rear connectors, and four ports of optical SX or LX connectivity to the front panel. It features a non-blocking shared memory architecture, providing 48Gbits/second wire speed performance. An unmanaged version is also available.
The VXS24 provides 22 ports of 1000BaseCX Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to the rear panel, with two ports of optional 1000BaseT available at the front panel. Like the GBX24, it is designed for deployment in demanding switching applications: it is available either in a standard air-cooled format, or rugged air-cooled for increased temperature- and shock resistance. It features a non-blocking shared memory architecture, providing 88Gbits/second wire speed performance.
“These new NETernity Gigabit Ethernet switches further extend the breadth of solutions that we can offer across a wide range of VME environments, and provide further evidence of our belief in the future of VME,” said Simon Collins, Product Manager at GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. “Whether customers choose to move forward with VME, VXS or VPX, we believe we have an unmatched solution that will enable them to leverage their existing investment while achieving leading edge performance.”
The GBX24 provides optional optical expansion through a mix of onboard optics and a separate Optical Expansion Board. All 24 ports can be converted to optical outputs to give 24 ports of Gigabit, either 1000 BaseSX or 1000 BaseLX. Onboard built-in test (BIT) ensures the GBX24 can be easily linked with other GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms boards to provide integrated system level health monitoring and diagnostics.
An optional mezzanine capability for the VXS24 allows for 10 Gigabit uplink expansion, transitioning from XAUI on the switch packet processor to the appropriate 10G standard at the front panel. The VXS24 can be expanded to a 48-port solution by connecting two VXS24s together via the 10 Gigabit ports.
Both switches feature comprehensive network management capabilities based on FASTPATH software that include VLANs, link aggregation, spanning tree, IPv4, IPv6, IGMP, traffic policing, Quality of Service (QoS), guaranteed bandwidth and SNMP. Configuration of the switches is via a comprehensive and intuitive web interface, command line interface or SNMP.
About GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms
GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a joint venture between General Electric (NYSE: GE) and FANUC LTD of Japan, is a high-performance technology company and a global provider of hardware, software, services, expertise and experience in automation and embedded computing, with products employed in virtually every industry, including manufacturing automation, defense, automotive, telecommunications, healthcare and aerospace. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is a worldwide company head-quartered in Charlottesville, VA, and is part of GE Enterprise Solutions. For more information, visit www.gefanuc.com