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Cisco serves up $250 million for Topspin

Jon Skillings Editorial director
Jon Skillings is an editorial director at CNET, where he's worked since 2000. A born browser of dictionaries, he honed his language skills as a US Army linguist (Polish and German) before diving into editing for tech publications -- including at PC Week and the IDG News Service -- back when the web was just getting under way, and even a little before. For CNET, he's written on topics from GPS, AI and 5G to James Bond, aircraft, astronauts, brass instruments and music streaming services.
Expertise AI, tech, language, grammar, writing, editing Credentials
  • 30 years experience at tech and consumer publications, print and online. Five years in the US Army as a translator (German and Polish).
Jon Skillings

Networking giant Cisco Systems is getting a grip on the clustering racket with an agreement to buy Topspin Communications.

Privately held Topspin makes "server fabric switches" designed to provide high-performance networking service in areas such as grid computing, clustered applications and server virtualization. One of the start-up's customers is Dell, which uses Topspin's switches to connect PowerEdge servers in clusters of up to 128 servers.

Cisco says the $250 million acquisition will help round out its lineup, with Topspin's InfiniBand-based gear falling into place alongside Cisco's Ethernet and SAN switches.