Spirent's Scalable 10GbE Test Solutions and Foundry's BigIronR 15000 Chassis Unveil 280 Gigabits per Second, Line-Rate Switching/Routing Performance on Fourteen 10-Gigabit Ethernet Ports

ATLANTA (June 4, 2002) - Foundry NetworksR Inc., (NASDAQ:FDRY), a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing and Web traffic management solutions, and Spirent Communications?, a wholly owned business group of Spirent plc (NYSE: SPM and LSE: SPT), today announced that they will feature the world's largest 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) test bed demonstration at SuperComm in Atlanta, June 4-6. The live demonstration, in Foundry's booth #10230, will prove 280 Gigabits per-second of line-rate 10-Gigabit Ethernet performance for Foundry's 10GbE products running long range (LR) and extended range (ER) optics using Spirent's scalable 10GbE test solutions.

For the show demonstration, the BigIronR 15000 Layer 3 switch will be fully loaded with 14-ports of 10-Gigabit Ethernet along with an 8-port Gigabit Ethernet management module to validate wire-speed performance. Foundry's unique IronCore? and third generation JetCore? ASIC chipsets enable fully distributed, wire-speed switching and routing, which enables networks to scale up to 345 Million packets per second (Mpps) - providing massive switching and routing capacity to address Enterprise and Service Provider networking requirements today and into the future.

Foundry has chosen Spirent Communications 10GbE integrated test solution including its SMB-6000B and AX/4000 chassis, LAN-3710AL 10GbE test modules, AX/4000 10Gbps Generator/Analyzer, and test modules with Uni-PHY Interface to demonstrate Foundry's BigIron 15000 switch. Spirent's 10GbE test solutions are the first scalable multi-port network performance analysis solutions that allows users to identify weaknesses in their networks or network products through rigorous performance test of both new and legacy networking technologies.

"Due to the enormous interest at N+I, we are once again participating with Spirent in this live 10GbE demonstration where Foundry can continue to showcase its comprehensive technology advantage unmatched by the competition today," said Bobby Johnson, president and CEO of Foundry Networks. "With our industry-leading and proven10-Gigabit Ethernet products, Foundry continues to advance its market leadership position with a very powerful and compelling solution for the construction of next-generation, high-performance networking infrastructures."

Foundry's 10-Gigabit Ethernet modules also support JetScope? Traffic Accounting and Monitoring technology. For the first time, network administrators have, at a system level, the ability to see, manage, and account for, their networking traffic throughout their switched and routed environment without impacting network performance, in effect, or requiring expensive network probes.

"We are excited to repeat this benchmark 10GbE performance test with Foundry Networks at SuperComm," said Bahaa Moukadam, vice president of product marketing, Spirent Communications. "The overwhelming response that both companies received from the largest ever 10GbE test at N+I further validates the interest and commitment to the advancement of the 10GbE market."

Spirent will feature its full range of 10GbE test solutions including its LAN, WAN, Uni-PHY, XENPAK, XAUI, POS OC-192, and its most recently introduced 10GbE Metro Test System, in its booth #12017 at SuperComm.