This project is funded under the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which is designed to provide an opportunity for small business, particularly the small high technology firm, to participate in NSF research. Phase I of the SBIR program serves as a filter to select promising proposals and determine if the firm can do high quality research. Phase II is the principal research project. Phase III is the conversion of the NSF-funded research into commercial applications and technological innovation supported by follow-on private venture capital or other non-federal financing. This is a Phase I project. Local area networks based on the new international ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) standard will provide high-speed multi-media (data, audio and video) communication over the same network. These networks will require fast packet switches that can switch the very small packets specified by the ATM standard. Fore Systems is researching interconnection of multiple fast packet switches in an arbitrary topology to build an ATM-based local area network capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of attached computers.
