Packet Engines (PE) claims it is going to eliminate the router as a network design constraint with the launch of its PowerRail family of routing switches.

The range, which includes the 5200 for the enterprise backbone, the 2200 for the building backbone, and the 1000 for the edge, includes PE's infinite routing feature, designed to eliminate the problems of backbone bottlenecks.

The performance of the PowerRail relies on the unique Parallel Access Shared Memory. This is a non-blocking architecture, enabling capabilities previously unreached, such as wire-speed routing of IP Multicast traffic, on all ports simultaneously.

The line is designed around four key components: Infinite Routing, mission-critical reliability, application-aware networking and continuous investment protection.

Each member of the PowerRail family has a particular role in networking.

The PowerRail 5200 boasts a 52Gbps capacity and will support up to 25 Gigabit Ethernet ports or 240 Fast Ethernet ports.

The PowerRail 2200 has a 22Gbps capacity and will support up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports or 100 Fast Ethernet ports.

POWER ROUTING The PowerRail routing switches support more than 37 million packets per second (pps) and up to 1.5 million addresses. Routing decisions are based on a matrix of Layer 2, 3 and 4 attributes. They also support multiprotocol environments, delivering wire-speed, packet-by-packet routing for IPv4, IPv6 and IPX, with hardware-assisted routing for eight additional protocols, including AppleTalk and DECnet.

Alan Clark, technical editor of Network News, writes: "From independent test results seen so far, this technology certainly delivers the goods it promises. A report due out from Scott Bradner (senior technical consultant, Harvard University) should highlight the router's capabilities further, and we will bring you the results as soon as we can. This is definitely one to watch out for."