3Com Delivers Another Industry First SNA Solution

3Com leadership in APPN technology strengthened with delivery of industry
first APPN Dependent LU Requester (DLUR) in a multiprotocol router

August 21, 1995 -- SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ:COMS),
the world's fastest-growing network systems vendor, today became the first
networking vendor to offer customers a multiprotocol router solution
incorporating APPN (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Networking) Dependent LU
Requester (DLUR) in a multiprotocol routing environment. 3Com is the first
networking vendor to provide this capability to customers who are seeking
to migrate their subarea networks to IBM's strategic APPN. With this new
solution, 3Com is providing the functionality which will allow customers
to move forward with IBM's strategic direction of migrating legacy SNA
subarea networks toward APPN. This feature is offered in the company's
NETBuilder 8.2 software release and is currently available.

"We are delighted that 3Com, the first company to license IBM's DLUR
function for APPN, is now providing this capability to customers," said
Rick McGee, director of Internetworking, IBM Networking Hardware Division.
"As SNA networks gain the benefits of APPN dynamics and simplicity, they
will need the DLUR function to exploit the existing infrastructure and
applications."

INDUSTRY FIRSTS IN IBM NETWORKING

This announcement furthers 3Com's leading role in helping customers
integrate legacy SNA and multiprotocol networks. This is evidenced by 3Com
being the first vendor besides IBM to announce such "first to market"
connectivity solutions as:

* First company to license APPN technology from IBM
* First commercially available APPN-Network Node (APPN-NN) implementation
* First APPN-NN over Frame Relay implementation

APPN is a key component within 3Com's High Performance Scalable Networking
(HPSN) architecture. HPSN is 3Com's product and technology blueprint for
building and managing data networks, providing a framework for customers
to build scalable networks.

"Because 3Com understands SNA internetworking environments and the critical
need to migrate legacy traffic to APPN networks, we were able to deliver
yet another first-to-market milestone," said Jeff Thermond, Vice President
and General Manager of the Network Systems Division at 3Com. "3Com's APPN
DLUR will enable the approximately 10 million legacy SNA users to migrate
their IBM based networks into an APPN network seamlessly and consistently
with IBM's product direction in a manner which provides users with less
product obsolescence and more cost savings."

DLUR OFFERS EASY TO FOLLOW MIGRATION PATH

DLUR provides the capability for APPN to support legacy SNA 3270 based
applications. Until now, APPN has been limited to supporting only the
latest generation of client/server SNA applications, which have been based
on APPC (Advanced Program-to-Program Communication) and LU 6.2. Developed
through the AIW (APPN Implementer's Workshop), DLUR provides an industry
standard solution for APPN networks to natively carry dependent LU traffic
between IBM mainframes and peripheral devices such as printers, terminals,
point-of-sale devices, and automatic teller machines. With DLUR now in the
NETBuilder II family of routers, customers can build APPN networks that
meet their entire SNA networking needs.

Through its implementation of DLUR in the NETBuilder II product line, 3Com
now offers two unique and significant capabilities to the internetworking
industry. As the only vendor to provide downstream PU support, 3Com
provides the ability for SNA devices of all types to be connected to the
APPN network and access legacy applications without the need for costly
equipment upgrades and reconfiguration. In addition, as the only
implementation of APPN DLUR in a multiprotocol router, the NETBuilder II
provides the industry's only solution for integrating legacy SNA devices
and applications into a single physical network supporting both native SNA
and native non-SNA protocols.

IBM NETWORKING MADE SIMPLE WITH 3COM SOLUTIONS

This new DLUR routing feature compliments 3Com's previously announced IBM
connectivity options which include a wide range of connectivity solutions.
Components of 3Com's IBM Connectivity product set include:

* Data Link Switching (DLSw)
* SNA Boundary Routing Architecture
* APPN
* RFC 1490 (SNA over Frame Relay)

3Com Corporation has helped more than 22 million people gain access to
critical information through high speed networks. Designed to serve large
enterprises, small offices and homes, 3Com products provide a scalable
architecture to meet the immediate and long-term connectivity needs of
today's user. With research and development on three continents, 3Com is
one of the data networking industry's largest and fastest growing
companies. The company's innovative manufacturing, marketing, sales and
support simplify communication, optimize network reliability and protect
customer investments.
 
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