Briefs

Dell Computer Corp. will take on competitors such as 3Com Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. when it unveils its new devices for the networking market later on Wednesday. Dell, best known as a direct seller of PCs, announced in July that it was planning to jump into the low-end networking market. Targeting the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market, Dell will introduce its first line of networking products, four workgroup switches, later in the day on Wednesday, a U.K. spokeswoman from Dell confirmed. Dell, which will still resell switches from vendors including 3Com, Foundry Networks Inc. and NetGear Inc., will market its own switches under the Dell PowerConnect brand.