3COM Ships Terabit Switch For Converged Networks

3Com Corporation announced yesterday that it is shipping its Switch 8800 terabit-capacity, enterprise modular core network platform.

Designed for large-scale, secure convergence and application integration, the Switch 8800 delivers secure, high-performance as well as highly-available and scalable connectivity. 3Com says that it will allow companies to quickly and efficiently deploy enterprise-wide IP telephony services and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based convergence applications like IP messaging.

The platform is the result of a $160 million joint venture with Huawei and features a core switch that uses dual load-sharing switch fabrics that 3Com says fully utilizes the system's switching capacity. Switch 8800 delivers up to twenty-four 10 Gigabit wirespeed ports and 288 Gigabit wirespeed ports through its 1.44 Terabit backplane. However, according to 3Com, the switch also supports second generation fabric and modules that can ultimately double its performance and capacity.

"For the vast majority of enterprise customers who demand premium flexibility and secure convergence for their network infrastructure, the new 3Com Switch 8800 is the best Terabit switch in the larger enterprise market today," 3Com senior vice president of global marketing Jim Freeze said in a statement. "Recognizing how critically important the network is to the operation and success of their business, enterprise customers seek superior business value through their strategic IT investments. A growing number of enterprise customers are selecting 3Com and our large-scale systems for this precise reason."

Initial customers for the Switch 8800 include Covenant Health and Braintree Electric Light Department in the United States, as well as the departments of defense of the United Kingdom and Canada.