Blaze First to Market with 10GBASE-LX4 Transceiver for 10 Gigabit Ethernet

Blaze Network Products Inc, a leading supplier of optical sub-systems based on Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) technology, today announced the release of the Blaze Flamethrower-XGLX-02 (FT-XGLX-02), a low cost 10Gb/s Z-axis pluggable device. Blaze will start shipping Flamethrower production units in Q4 of 2001.

The Blaze Flamethrower is a CWDM-based 10Gb/s transceiver designed in accordance with the current revision of the 10GBASE-LX4 specification in IEEE 802.3ae. The transceiver integrates 1310nm optics along with CWDM into a XENPAK MSA package. The Flamethrower is a Z-axis pluggable device that can be hot plugged into a 10 Gigabit Ethernet XENPAK port. The product can be used with multimode and singlemode fiber, making it the optimal solution as 10 Gigabit Ethernet moves into the LAN space.

"The Flamethrower product will be the clear winner in the enterprise space for 10 Gigabit Ethernet deployments," said Kirk Bovill, director of product marketing, "It is the only solution that can be implemented over multimode and singlemode fiber, making it the best economic choice for the IS managers transitioning from Gigabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet. No one is going to want to spend the money to upgrade their cabling infrastructure if they don't have to in today's economic environment."

The Flamethrower transceiver features the XAUI interface protocol, 1310 CWDM DFBs, low power consumption, a standard dual SC optical interface and achieves IEEE 802.3ae link distances of 300m over installed multimode fiber and 10km over singlemode fiber.

"We are proud to announce the latest addition to our XENPAK family. The Flamethrower transceiver provides a cost effective and reliable solution for enterprise networks, says Steve Selee, product manager for Blaze.

About Blaze Network Products Blaze Network Products develops and manufactures cost-effective, next-generation optical networking products. Using innovative Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) technologies, Blaze redefines networking performance at the critical interface between electronic and optical components. Blaze has developed precision manufacturing processes that reduce the costs of premises and metro WDM solutions and enable widespread deployment of optical solutions in premise and metro area (MAN) networks. More company information is available at www.BlazeNP.com .

Blaze Network Products, 5180 Hacienda Drive, Dublin, CA 94568. Tel: 925-558-2100 ; Fax: 925-558-2197 .