LAS VEGAS -- Foundry Networks(R), Inc. (NASDAQ:FDRY) , a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, and Spirent Communications, a worldwide provider of integrated performance analysis and service assurance systems for next-generation network technologies, today announced the largest-ever demonstration of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) network technology at Networld+Interop, held here this week. The demonstration, located at booth #5749, uses Foundry's newly announced BigIron(R) MG8(TM) network switch and Spirent's award-winning SmartBits TeraMetrics 10GbE Test System. The live demonstration sets a new high watermark for the networking industry, achieving transmission speeds of 1.28 terabits and 480 million packets per second in a single, one-third rack sized system, roughly equivalent to 180,000 simultaneous streaming DVD sessions. Other networked applications that could use extremely high-speed, high-density 10GbE network technology such as this include leading grid computing installations, supercomputing applications, and research, entertainment, healthcare and media organizations running demanding applications such as graphics rendering and streaming audio and video. "The ability to move any combination of voice, video and data at this speed is unprecedented," said Ken Cheng, vice president and general manager of Foundry's Enterprise Business Unit. "Beyond setting the record for raw performance, this demonstration shows our continued commitment to leading the marketspace with the highest-performance, industry-standard 10GbE products. We now serve more than 100 leading 10GbE customers worldwide including leading healthcare, education and government institutions. Many of our 5,800 worldwide customers have been catalysts for the development of true 10 Gigabit Ethernet products like the BigIron MG8 and its ability to stand alone as the industry's first 40-Gigabit-ready product." "Spirent and Foundry are working together for the third year in a row to demonstrate the largest capacity 10GbE network," said Mark Fishburn, vice president of technical strategy at Spirent Communications. "Leveraging native Ethernet and IP topologies, 10GbE opens the door for unprecedented capacity, speed and distance for Ethernet-based networks. We were instrumental in developing this standard and seeing it through the design and evaluation process, which is exemplified in this demonstration of Foundry's new BigIron MG8 platform." Mr. Fishburn chairs the 10GbE Alliance and co-chairs the test and marketing committees for the Metro Ethernet Forum. Spirent Communications provides the first and only complete line of fully compliant 10GbE test and measurement products. Spirent's 10GbE test module was named "Technology of the Year" by Infoworld in 2002. Its 10GbE test solutions are the first scalable multi-port network performance analysis solutions that allow users to identify weaknesses in their networks or network products through rigorous performance tests of both new and legacy networking technologies. The demonstration features a BigIron MG8 Layer 3 switch loaded with 32 ports of 10GbE plus Spirent's Smartbits TeraMetrics 10 GbE Test Modules. Spirent's test software is used to generate traffic on all 32 ports at line rate. The configuration includes: -- Foundry BigIron MG8 switch with eight four-port 10GbE modules for a total of 32 ports of 10GbE -- Six Spirent SmartBits 6000B testers, configured with 16 XLW-3721A TeraMetrics 10GbE modules and 16 XLW-3720 SmartMetrics 10GbE modules to provide traffic generation capabilities