AFORE, Cavium and GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms Deliver Carrier Grade Ethernet on a MicroTCA® Platform with Packet Processor AdvancedMC®


Multi-Vendor Demonstration at AdvancedTCA® Summit

Santa Clara, CA- October 16, 2007-AFORE Solutions, Inc., Cavium Networks, and GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, leaders in the embedded computing industry, today announced their joint effort to deliver a Carrier Grade Ethernet (CGE) platform to provide the reliability and dependability of SONET transport networks for CGE. A live demonstration at the AdvancedTCA Summit, October 16-18, allows participants to view this hardware and software solution providing CGE on a packet processor AdvancedMC/MicroTCA platform.

AFORE InterPort(TM) software has been ported to GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms' Telum(TM) NPA-3804 AdvancedMC modules which utilize Cavium Octeon(TM)-based multi-core packet processors. The Telum NPA-3804 AdvancedMCs plug directly into the MicroTCA backplanes of GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms MP-2000 Modular Platforms. The demonstration will highlight AFORE Solutions InterPort(TM) Carrier Grade Ethernet Services, Enhanced VLAN/QinQ capabilities, and Ethernet Path Protection Switching.

"This level of vendor cooperation under the umbrella of the ATCA eco-system provides significant value in demonstrating the capabilities of new technologies and next-generation solutions," said Alex Berlin, President and CEO at AFORE. "GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms' MicroTCA platforms, with installed AdvancedMC modules equipped with Cavium processors and running InterPort software, provide an optimized solution for Carrier Grade Ethernet applications at a reduced cost and small footprint form factor."

"We are very excited about working with AFORE and Cavium to provide a Carrier Grade Ethernet solution that combines best-of-breed, leading-edge packet processing hardware and software," said Rubin Dhillon, Global Product Manager of Communications Product Management at GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. "This solution will enable a new class of opportunities for MicroTCA Platforms using standards-based CGE capability."

"Cavium Networks' OCTEON Multicore MIPS64 processors provide extraordinary performance for constrained power and space environments like the ATCA and MicroTCA form factors," said Amer Haider, Director of Strategic Marketing and Ecosystem Development at Cavium Networks. "We are excited to work with AFORE and GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms to provide Carrier Grade Ethernet OEMs a world class, ready-to-use hardware and software solution."

InterPort Carrier Grade Ethernet

AFORE's InterPort Carrier Grade Ethernet modules address the wide range of capabilities required for robust and manageable Ethernet implementations. Through the utilization of technologies such as MAC in MAC, Q in Q, PBT, QoS, OAM and Ring protection InterPort allows Ethernet to scale and meet the operational requirements of transport networks.

Telum NPA-3804 AdvancedMC

GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms' Telum NPA-3804s are cost-effective, intelligent, high-performance packet processor AdvancedMCs designed for Telecom secure access applications. These AdvancedMCs have a 12-core Cavium Octeon CN3850-SCP processor and 512MB DDR packet memory. They bring feature-rich packet processor capabilities to a carrier board, ATCA single board computer, or MicroTCA platform

MP-2000 MicroTCA Modular Platform

GE Fanuc' Intelligent Platforms' MP-2000 MicroTCA platforms are high-performance, scalable platforms designed for network-centric and MicroTCA development applications in a variety of markets. The 2U form factor MP-2000 platform has a 13-slot MicroTCA backplane, cooling units, MicroTCA Carrier Hub with PCI Express fabric module and a suite of five AdvancedMCs.

Octeon(TM) Multicore MIPS64 Processors

The Cavium Networks OCTEON family of Multi-Core MIPS64 processors offers industry leading performance, scalability, low-power and advanced hardware acceleration for intelligent networking applications ranging from 100Mbps to full-duplex 10Gbps. These software-compatible processors, with one to sixteen cnMIPS cores on a single chip, integrate next-generation networking interfaces, memory controller, advanced hardware acceleration for packet processing, QoS, TCP, multi-core scaling, , pattern matching, compression/decompression, storage and security with latest processor peripherals in a single chip. Additionally the OCTEON processor family provides unparallel throughput and general purpose programmability for Layer 2 through Layer 7 processing required for building next-generation intelligent networks

The AdvancedTCA Summit will be held in Santa Clara, October 16 -18.

About AFORE Solutions

AFORE(TM) Solutions Inc. provides innovative design services and software solutions for the telecom and networking industry. In its five year history, AFORE's highly professional engineering team has successfully delivered dozens of complex R&D projects to emerging and established companies in the US, Canada and Europe. AFORE's customers can take advantage of AFORE's InterPort(TM) technology and carrier grade system design expertise to accelerate network equipment and silicon deployment and reduce their time to revenue.

AFORE Solutions is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with US Sales offices in Oakley, CA and a design center the Ukraine. For more information, visit: www.aforesolutions.com.

Bringing Network Silicon and Systems to Life(TM)

About GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms

GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a joint venture between General Electric (NYSE: GE) and FANUC LTD of Japan, is a high-performance technology company and a global provider of hardware, software, services, expertise and experience in automation and embedded computing, with products employed in virtually every industry, including manufacturing automation, defense, automotive, telecommunications, healthcare and aerospace. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is a worldwide company head-quartered in Charlottesville, VA, and is part of GE Enterprise Solutions. For more information, visit www.gefanuc.com

About Cavium Networks

Cavium Networks is a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing in networking, communications, storage, and security applications. Cavium Networks offers a broad portfolio of integrated, software compatible processors ranging in performance from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps that enable secure, intelligent functionality in enterprise, data-center, broadband/consumer and access & service provider equipment. Cavium Networks processors are supported by ecosystem partners that provide operating systems, tool support, reference designs and other services. Cavium Networks principal offices are in Mountain View, CA with design team locations in California, Massachusetts and India. For more information, please visit: www.caviumnetworks.com.

Contacts: AFORE Solutions, Inc.
Betsy Gilbert
+1-203-217-9231
betsy.gilbert@aforesolutions.com

GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms
Ian McMurray
+44 (0) 1327 322821
Ian.mcmurray@gefanuc.com

Cavium Networks
Angel Atondo
+1-650-623-7033
angel.atondo@caviumnetworks.com

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