As ATM technology emerges as an important worldwide standard for the transmission of information, Microsoft is taking a leadership role in facilitating the deployment of ATM solutions on LANs and WANs. Microsoft's launching of the first ATM LAN Emulation logo and compatibility testing program will encourage third-party development of ATM interface products and enable customers to purchase ATM solutions with more confidence. Emulation is already being tested for Ethernet LANs, with emulation testing for token ring LANs to be added soon.
Launched with the release of Windows NT 4.0, the Ethernet LAN Emulation testing and logo certification program will soon be available for Windows 95. As this is written, ATM interface products, from Madge Network Systems, Adaptec, and Fore have already passed this logo testing process and are now identified in the Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) accessible via the Microsoft Web site. Other vendors' ATM products are in the process of being tested.
ATM card vendors benefit from the testing and logo certification program, because it provides a standard measure of compatibility and performance for ATM card vendors that has, to date, been lacking.
Customers benefit from the program because it means they can buy ATM card products which have earned the Windows-compatible logo with confidence that the ATM cards will perform reliably with a broad set of applications and with the operating system and CPU type.
And everyone benefits from the efficiency and scalability of ATM technology, with its fixed-length cells that allow switching to be accomplished at the hardware level, doing away with the need for routers, buffering, and grand translation. ATM is independent of the physical network, running on twisted pair, coax, or fiber. And by design, ATM has no speed limits.
Microsoft's plans to support ATM natively will open the way for QoS-based real-time video and no-delay voice applications that will revolutionize the way in which the personal computer is used by opening new opportunities for software and hardware vendors, who will create rich—and perhaps as yet unimagined—experiences for end users.