Apcon Unsheathes Ethernet Blade

PORTLAND, Ore. -- APCON, Inc., a leading provider of network solutions and intelligent physical layer switches for Fibre Channel, Ethernet and SONET, today announced the new 10/100/1000 Ethernet blade for its physical layer switch line. The new blade supports Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet over copper simultaneously, providing a flexible, scalable solution for network administrators and system test engineers. The 10/100/1000 Ethernet blade can be used with APCON's INTELLAPATCH 64 and INTELLAPATCH 144 switches, which are designed to remotely automate network connectivity tasks, such as interoperability lab configuration, cable management and access control. The new blade also provides the ability to convert an incoming copper link to a fiber link, and vice versa, making it an ideal solution for local area network physical Gigabit connections and upgrades. "We're already seeing a great demand for this multi-rate Ethernet blade," said Richard Rauch, APCON's president and CEO. "For example, 1-Gig products are in various stages of development. Companies need to be sure that their products are compatible with existing systems and other vendors' network elements. Our switch allows them to cut both time and costs from their testing process. The flexibility and media conversion capabilities of this blade also make this a valuable solution for extending CAT5 connections and converting from the copper-based LAN to optical servers and routers." Apcon Inc.