CROSSCOMM CORPORATION BREAKS PRICE/PERFORMANCE BARRIER WITH NEW, NEXT
GENERATION XLX ATM SWITCH

New Workgroup Switch Offers Twice the Performance at 40% Less Cost Than
Market Leader.

MARLBOROUGH, MA October 3, 1995 -- CrossComm Corporation today introduced a
new ATM Workgroup Switch it says will break the $1000 per port
price/performance barrier, enabling organizations to implement high- speed
ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) workgroup network solutions. The new XLX
ATM Workgroup Switch features an advanced design, based on next-generation
technology, to offer users more outstanding performance features while
keeping the cost lower than before possible.

CrossComm continues to develop attractive solutions for the switching
environment, first leveraging Ethernet switching technology, now with
strategic partnering, to bring an innovative, aggressively-priced
workgroup solution to the ATM marketplace, said Charlie Robbins, Vice
President of Communications Research at Aberdeen Group. The XLX, part of
the ClearPath product line, takes advantage of an ATM switching fabric
integrated in a series of CrossComm XL packages -- addressing key
migration, cost and packaging concerns for high performance workgroup
implementation. The availability of XLX should prove an effective stimulus
for increasing mainstream customer interest in ATM at the desktop level.

CrossComm's XLX ATM Workgroup Switch is a high-performance ATM switch that
can be used to build the high-bandwidth networks organizations are
demanding as they move from the old hub-and-router configurations into the
more advanced LAN switching and ATM-based technologies. Because of its low
cost and versatility, the XLX ATM Switch is ideal as an ATM workgroup
switch that offers high-performance connectivity to the desktop and to
super servers with ATM interface cards.

DELIVERING ATM PERFORMANCE AT A WORKGROUP PRICE

The high cost associated with ATM restricted its use to the heavily-
trafficked backbones of corporate networks, said Al Kotob, CrossComm's
Director of Product Management. "Many of the applications users have been
clamouring for -- such as desktop video conferencing, Lotus Notes, remote
medical diagnostics, full-motion video -- need the bandwidth only ATM can
provide, but company management were more often reluctant to pay the price
associated with it. With the introduction of our XLX ATM Switch, we can
show that ATM is a cost-justifiable technology for workgroup LANs. At 5
GB/s switching capacity and a cost of under $1,000 per port, customers can
begin to migrate to ATM more quickly and to use it in areas they did not
think would be economically feasible before now. Other ATM Workgroup
offerings, such as the ForeRunner ASX-200WG or the Cisco LightStream 100,
only offer a speed of 2.5 Gb/s -- and they cost about $1,684 and $2,619
per port, respectively.

REAPING BENEFITS OF NEXT-GENERATION TECHNOLOGY

CrossComm's XLX ATM Switch takes advantage of an ATM chip set highly
integrated in silicon. The non-blocking architecture offers both Virtual
Path (VP) and Virtual Connection (VC) switching, supporting 14,000 VCs.
Multicast and broadcast capabilities are built in, providing queues for
each port to enable simultaneous handling of four priority levels of
traffic. Extensive and centralized port buffering and queuing -- where all
32k buffers might be used by a single busy port -- provides much more
efficient use of buffer memory for congestion management, and improves
network integrity. The distributed architecture design ensures no single
point of failure, delivering overall mission- critical reliability.

In addition to providing higher degrees of performance and reliability at
lower price points today, the second-generation technology enables
CrossComm to provide other important customer benefits for the future. "As
ATM standards are just evolving, most first-generation products will not
be compliant with the new standards without significant hardware changes,
said Kotob. We have designed-in investment protection; since the XLX is
software-programmable, as the standards change, you can just download new
software to upgrade. Because the XLX is part of the ClearPath product
line, users reap the benefits of integrated routing and LAN/ATM switching
in the same integrated platform.

Because of its adherence to industry standards and high degree of
interoperatibility, the XLX ATM Workgroup Switch can be used as a front
end to very large ATM backbone switches, such as those offered by GDC,
IBM, FORE, Cascade and others. It can also be used as a mini backbone --
connecting workgroups to other XLX Workgroup Switches, or to edge routers
and switches.

CLEARPATH -- DELIVERING NEXT-GENERATION NETWORKING TODAY

The XLX ATM Workgroup Switch is optimized for workgroup applications. It is
a major milestone in CrossComm's delivery of products based on its
ClearPath philosophy. ClearPath is the industry's first fully- integrated
communications and networking strategy that provides IT professionals with
a smooth transition from hub-and-router based networks to the
next-generation LAN switching and ATM environments. ClearPath products --
integrating LAN switching, ATM, routing, and LAN hubs within a single
fault-tolerant platform -- offer complete, high performance, modular
solutions that can continue to grow as bandwidth demands increase.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY (U.S. LIST PRICES)

The XLX-1200 ATM Workgroup Switch modules (12 ports, OC3, multimode) are
priced at $11,950, and are available 60 days ARO.

CrossComm Corporation (NASDQ/XCOM), founded in 1987, designs, develops,
manufactures and sells high-performance networking solutions that assist
organizations making the transition from today's networks to
next-generation LAN switching and ATM-based networks. Worldwide
headquarters are located at 450 Donald Lynch Boulevard, Marlborough, MA
01752.
 
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