Hitachi and Toshiba to be Partners in Delivering Next-Generation High-Speed Networking Products

10 April, 1997


Hitachi, Ltd.
Toshiba Corporation


Tokyo, Japan, April 10, 1997---Hitachi, Ltd. and Toshiba Corporation, two of Japan's leading electronics manufacturers, today announced that they have agreed to cooperate in the field of next-generation high-speed networking products for the Internet and intranets. Under the agreement, Hitachi and Toshiba will work together to deliver leading- edge products for the world computer network market. The two companies will also cooperate to establish themselves as market leaders in the fast-expanding networking business.

As the first step, Hitachi and Toshiba will provide each other with innovative products and technologies, drawing on their respective strengths ---Toshiba's routers and Hitachi's switches --- that each will integrate into the systems they supply to the world market.

Hitachi will incorporate Toshiba's Cell Switch Router(CSR) technology in its AN 1000 ATM switch and HS150 LAN switch and will provide these products to Toshiba. Toshiba will provide Hitachi with its CSR controller, CSR530.

In the future, the companies intend to expand cooperation in the area of high-speed networking products.

"By working with Toshiba, Hitachi expects to provide a highly competitive set of networking products to this fast-expanding market," said Masao Kato, general manager of Hitachi's Office Systems Division. "The phenomenal increase in communications over the Internet and the growing use of intranets as a corporate tool have created demand for a new communications infrastructure - one supporting high-speed transmission and real-time processing of vast volumes of information."

Kaoru Kubo, Toshiba's general manager of Computer & Network Product Division, said: "Toshiba is delighted to have Hitachi select our CSR technology. This partnership is important for Toshiba's network business, and we are sure that our partnership will make key contributions to the technology for next-generation high- speed networks. We believe our router technology, combined with Hitachi's advanced switch technology, will bring a highly competitive solution to the market."

Hitachi has emerged as a leader in the high-speed network business. Its AN1000 series of ATM switches for corporate use, based on the ATM Forum's specification, offers a 20Gbps switching capacity, the fastest yet achieved. The company's HS150 high-speed LAN switch is fully compatible with 100 megabit Ethernet.

Toshiba's new IP switching product, the CSR 5300, provides the first product on the market to offer topology and flow-driven methods, to deliver flexible network layer switching. Using a 2.5Gbps ATM switch as a high-performance packet-forwarding engine, the CSR offers a data transmission rate ten times faster than that of Toshiba's previous high-end routers. CSR 5300 maintains complete interoperability with standard ATM-switch based networks and its versatility assures the future scalability of the Internet and Intranets.

Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan is the world's leading global electronics company, with fiscal 1995 (ending March 31, 1996) consolidated sales of $76.6 billion. The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment.

Based in Tokyo, Toshiba Corporation is a world leader in electronic technology in the areas of information and communications systems, electronic components, social infrastructure systems and consumer products. The company is the leader in the world's portable PC market. In fiscal 1995, Toshiba registered sales of $48.3 billion and had 186,000 employeesworld wide.


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