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Defending its wiring-closet stronghold, Cabletron Systems announced last week a higher-density Ethernet switching module for its flagship MMAC-Plus hub, also promising future products designed to protect this important market from further encroachments.
The main source of Cabletron's concern is Cisco Systems, which is coming up fast on the outside, threatening Cabletron's leadership in the backbone Ethernet switch market, said Eric Hindin, an analyst at the Yankee Group, a Boston-based consultancy.
According to Yankee Group statistics, Cabletron shipped 160,200 switched Ethernet ports for the backbone in 1995. During the same period, Cisco shipped 95,000 ports.
But the first half of this year revealed quite a reversal, Hindin said. Even though Cabletron shipped 209,000 ports in the first half of 1996, Cisco shipped a whopping 612,000 ports during the same six months.
By contrast, 3Com dropped from 216,000 ports in 1995 to 125,000 in the first half of 1996.
"One of the reasons that Cisco was able to accomplish what it did was...