TI Home 
Search Feedback 
Semiconductor Home
A new combination of silicon and software will provide networking managers a versatile, simplified and easy-to-upgrade networking solution.
TI and Epilogue Technology Corporation, the leading supplier of network management software, have announced that they are working together to bring Remote Net-work Monitor (RMON)-based management solutions to both 10Base-T and high-speed Ethernet systems.
Under the terms of the agreement, Epilogue will offer a version of its Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and RMON source code that includes drivers for TI's ThunderLAN 10Base-T/100Base-T/100Base-VG Ethernet chip architecture.
Combining Epilogue's RMON software with ThunderLAN's network architecture gives networking manufacturers three distinct advantages:
"Our ThunderLAN silicon products have been designed to 'future-proof' high-speed Ethernet, allowing our customers to manufacture 10Base-T, 100Base-T and 100Base-VG systems using the same chipset," said Joe Valente, TI LAN program manager.
Networking managers can test the power of this software/silicon combination with a ThunderLAN reference kit, which will be available in the first half of 1996. This reference kit will include a ThunderLAN-based evaluation model and shrink-wrapped executable versions of Epilogue's Attach=82 TCP/IP/UDP, Envoy SNMP and Ambassador Plus RMON source code products. ThunderLAN is now available from Texas Instruments, and full implementations of Attach=82, Envoy, and Ambassador are available from Epilogue Technology.
Future opportunities that could be addressed as a result of this joint effort include a ThunderLAN-based solution optimized for network management using Epilogue's Ambassador Plus RMON source code. By integrating the RMON-optimized ThunderLAN silicon with Epilogue's RMON source code, manufacturers will be able to create more efficient network managed solutions that support 10Base-T, 100Base-T, or 100Base-VG networks.
"If it's not carefully implemented, RMON can be more of a hindrance than a help, bogging down already congested networks by continuously collecting unnecessary data," said David Preston, vice president and general manager of Epilogue Technology. "By working with an innovator in network chip architecture design like TI, we have the ability to combine our software with TI silicon to streamline RMON."
Once the RMON/ThunderLAN combination is ready for market, Texas Instruments and Epilogue Technology will explore options for deploying the same technology in Texas Instruments' other ThunderNET products.
TI's ThunderNET family includes ThunderLAN as well as TI's Thunder-RING Token Ring architecture and ThunderCELL ATM architecture.
Epilogue Technology Corporation specializes in developing and marketing standards-based network management and protocol software products and support services to computer OEMs and computer systems manufacturers.
November 1995, vol. 12, no. 8