NEW YORK - A scientist credited for helping create the internet unveiled a new router yesterday, saying it would help improve the delivery of video over the web and offer an alternative to those sold by industry leader Cisco Systems Inc.
Lawrence Roberts, once part of a groupthat developed the world's first major computer packet network in the 1960s, started up Anagran Inc. in 2004 with the aim of developing a router that can better handle internet traffic.
The FR-1000 Flow Router, Anagran's first product, uses what the company calls behavioral traffic control, instead of existing methods of delivering data "packets" across networks, to ensure online video and voice services are delivered without interruptions.
"It was clear that this was the time to do this," Roberts told Reuters in a phone interview, saying a fall in memory chip prices had helped to cut manufacturing costs and that the growing use of voice and video on the web had boosted demand.
"The problems are increasing with video, as well as voice," he said.
He also said that compared with Cisco's routers, such as the 7600 and 12000 series, as well as similar products by Juniper Networks, Anagran's FR-1000 was smaller and used less energy.
Roberts said he expected sales to be modest in 2007, with the product mostly being tested by such potential customers as telecommunications companies, but forecast large sales next year.
The price of the FR-1000 ranges from US$50,000 to US$100,000, ($66,650 to $133,300) depending on configurations, the company said.
Roberts also said Anagran was interested in going public when it becomes profitable, which he said could be in 2009.
