11/13/2002 -- Cisco officially announced a revised Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA) exam yesterday. Currently, only the beta version of the new exam, #641-861, is available.

Although this beta version actually became available in October, Cisco is officially promoting the new exam now because its corresponding training course, Designing for Cisco Internetwork Solutions (DESGN), has launched.

The cost of the beta is $50 and will be available until Dec. 20. Cisco has yet to announce when the previous version of the CCDA exam, #640-441, will be retired or when the new exam will go "live."

No matter which version of the CCDA exam is taken, the correspoding certification will remain valid for three years. Both exams are currently available at Vue and Prometric testing centers worldwide.

To view the official annoucement, click here. -B.N.