>
>It is probably useful to differentiate between Netstar, which was
>recently acquired by Ascend, and the rest of Ascend. The GigaRouter
>was developed by Netstar prior to its acquisition by Ascend.
>
>-tjs
>
>
Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought the GRF-400 was an Ascend product
and the GRF-1600 is the NetStar GigaRouter, with some additional developments.Am I right?
A very brief synopsis of the Netstar/Ascend GigaRouter/GRF history:
June 1994:
GigaRouter - Original Creation of Netstar, 16 slot chassis,
external UNIX-centric router manager system, etc.
Ships to first customer in Germany.
1995:
GigaRouter II - Version #2 of the original.. Better (blue)
cabinet with more easily serviced parts (fans,
power supplies, etc); external PC now
industrialized (SCSI rather than IDE, for
example and rack mountable rather than
tabletop). Also new rev of router manager board
(card that fills the center slot). Various
other minor changes.
August 1996: - Ascend acquires Netstar ($305M) and calls the
Netstar operation "Ascend's High Performance
Networking Division." Says, "Who in their
right mind would buy a 16 slot box? Make a 4
slot box instead."
October 1996: - HPND finds a chainsaw a chops 12 slots off the
GigaRouterII, and puts it in (yet another)
new Ascendish cabinet. Backplane componentry
stays the same, except slots 5-16 (which
don't exist) aren't wired. External Router
Manager System (UNIX platform) previously run
on a standalone PC rolled under the hood.
Router manager board obsolete in the new
order. New product called the GRF400.
Netstar OS v5.0 software renamed Ascend Embedded
OS v1.0.
4Q1996 - GRF400 met with enthusiasm by customers, for a
variety of reasons.. Complaints of, "4 slots
just aren't enough" are however heard.
Ascend directs HPND to establish a new vision
and build a 16 slot box.
1Q1997 - HPND finds the 12 slots on the floor from the
previous chainsawwing and glues them to the
developments of the GRF400: Underhood
RMS, Ascendish-cabinet, etc. GRF1600 is born.
Very early 1997 - Ascend shows the new GRF1600.
-Jeff