Protogate Announces Freeway 3000 Family

- Four New Freeway Models for 1U to 6U Rackmount Applications, for Installations Requiring from 4 to 128 WAN Connections -

SAN DIEGO, California, Jan. 7, 2002 -- Protogate Corporation announced today the official release of four new Freeway models: the Freeway 3100, the Freeway 3200, the Freeway 3400, and the Freeway 3600. The new products are the first in the new 3000-series Freeway family.

All four of the new 3000-series Freeways are PCIbus-based. Protogate is currently designing additional Freeway servers which will be CompactPCI-based; it expects to announce the availability of those Freeway models later this year. Together, the 3000-series Freeways and the CompactPCI-based Freeways will replace the current Freeway 1200, 1300, 2000, 4000, and 8800 models. "We will continue building our older Freeway models," said Protogate President and CEO Eric Loos, "but only for existing customers and upon special request. For new installations we expect customers to use the Freeway 500, 3100, 3200, 3400, or 3600, or our upcoming CompactPCI-based Freeways."

Freeway servers are used worldwide to cross-connect, convert, or translate data streams between a wide variety of Wide-Area-Network (WAN) lines and Internet Protocol (IP) connections. They are most commonly used to provide WAN protocol line access to LAN-connected systems.

The 3000-series Freeway servers support the same DLI/TSI or socket-level interfaces as all other Freeway servers, says Protogate, so the 3000-series servers are functionally identical to all existing Freeways.

But the 3000-series offers form factors and WAN port densities which have not been available before, and includes features such as optional multiple "N+1" hot-swappable redundant power supplies, which are not available on any other Freeway model.

Features common to all 3000-series models:

All of the new 3000-series Freeway models are encased in black chassis designed to fit into a standard 19-inch rack. All include a Pentium-based CPU board, one or more 10/100 BaseT ethernet interfaces, a flash disk (or optional rotating magnetic hard disk), a 3.5-inch floppy drive, a CDROM drive, and a complete set of the Freeway server software and client libraries. Connectors for a VGA monitor, a keyboard, a serial console, and a 10BaseT/100BaseTX Ethernet cable are available at the back of each Freeway 3000-series chassis.

All of the 3000-series Freeway models also have two or more expansion slots, into which can be installed either Intelligent Communications Processor (ICP) boards or additional ethernet interfaces. Each installed ICP board supports up to 8 EIA-232 WAN protocol lines, or up to 4 lines if the electrical interface is EIA-449 (422), EIA-530, or V.35. If installed, the WAN connectors or additional ethernet connectors are also located at the back of the chassis.

A door at the front of each of the new Freeway models swings downward to expose the power-on/off and reset switches and to give access to the floppy and CDROM drives. Power and hard-disk-activity LEDS on the front panel are visible either with the door open or closed. The reset and power-on/off switches, the floppy drive, and the CDROM drive are accessible only when the door is opened.

Features of individual 3000-series models:

The models in the 3000-series differ in size and WAN line capacity.

For further information, refer to the technical specifications of the Freeway 3100, Freeway 3200, Freeway 3400, or Freeway 3600 on Protogate's www.protogate.com website, download the Installation Guide for the Freeway 3100, Freeway 3200, Freeway 3400, or Freeway 3600, or contact the Protogate sales department via email at sales@protogate.com or via phone at (U.S.) (858) 451-0865.

Protogate
Protogate Inc., founded in March, 2000, designs, manufactures, markets, and supports communications servers that link WAN networks to IP networks. Protogate's headquarters are located at 12225 World Trade Drive, Suite R, San Diego, California 92128, USA, telephone: 858-451-0865; fax: 877-473-0190; email: sales@protogate.com; web: www.protogate.com.

Freeway is a registered trademark of Simpact, Inc. and is used here by permission. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective holders.