Customers are champing at the bit for Gigabit Ethernet solutions, according to companies exhibiting at the Networld+Interop show in Las Vegas last week.

Gigabit Ethernet was the hot topic at the show, with hoards of users crowding the stands of start-up companies including Rapid City, Extreme Networks and Prominet, a company founded by five ex-Chipcom employees.

"People have heard the hype and read the articles. This show is the first chance they've had to come along and kick the tyres of the startups," said John Ricciardone, director of marketing at Prominet.

The company will ship evaluation units of its P550 Cajun switch in the summer and begin selling in October. A UK office will open 1 July.

Rapid City will begin selling in June. Both companies believe that the technology will have a shorter introduction time because users are already familiar with Ethernet and Fast Ethernet.

Prominet's Ricciard-one believes that there will be an opportunity for the start-ups to compete against the big players.

"3Com is distracted by the US Robotics merger, while Cisco is going through a difficult period. I think there is an opportunity to carve out niches," he said.