10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance Prepares to Debut World's Largest 10 GbE Interoperability Network; 10GEA Completes Successful Hot Stage With 25 10GbE Vendors

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--April 25, 2002--The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance (10GEA) today announced that it is preparing to showcase the largest 10 Gigabit Ethernet interoperability demonstration network ever. The network, which will be comprised of products from 25 network vendors, will be on display at NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 7-9 in the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance's booth # 6225.

In preparation for the interoperability demonstration, the 10GEA hosted a hot stage last week at Key3Media's NetWorld+Interop hot stage facilities in Belmont, California. Over 100 people from all participating companies gathered to assemble the network and conduct pair and group testing.

Those interested in witnessing the 10 Gigabit Ethernet interoperability demonstration and learning more about the technology and the status of the IEEE 802.3ae 10 Gigabit Ethernet standard effort are encouraged to come by the booth or visit the 10GEA's web site at www.10gea.org.

About 10 Gigabit Ethernet

Positioned as a high-speed, unifying technology for networking applications in LANs, MANs, and WANs, 10 Gigabit Ethernet will provide simple, high bandwidth at relatively low cost. In LAN applications, 10 Gigabit Ethernet will enable organizations to scale their packet-based networks from 10 Mbps to 10,000 Mbps, thereby leveraging their investments in Ethernet. In MAN and WAN applications, 10 Gigabit Ethernet will enable service providers and others to create extremely high-speed longer distance Ethernet links at a very competitive cost. For specific information about the IEEE P802.3ae visit the IEEE web site at http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/3/ae/index.html.

About the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance

The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance was organized to facilitate and accelerate the introduction of 10 Gigabit Ethernet into the networking market. It was founded by networking industry leaders: 3Com (Nasdaq:COMS), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO), Extreme Networks (Nasdaq:EXTR), Intel (Nasdaq:INTC), Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT), Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW), and World Wide Packets. Additionally, the Alliance supports the activities of IEEE 802.3 Ethernet committee, fosters the development of the 802.3ae (10 Gigabit Ethernet) standard, and promotes interoperability among 10 Gigabit Ethernet products. For more information, visit their web site at www.10gea.org.

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