The CrossLink forks are parallelogram forks that were developed in the mid-to-late 1990s. The carbon versions were made available in the 1998 and 1999 model years and received the SmartShock treatment. They work well but have a limited travel range (~3"). They are however known for being a very tight-handling fork which to some riders doesn't inspire confidence on downhill runs. Properly cared for, they will last as long as any other fork. The key is to treat these things as a linkage suspension system. Because they use a monoshock design, there's no asymmetrical travel and they track better than any telescopic fork I've ridden. If you really like tight crisp front end handling then these forks don't dissapoint. These are XC and very light freeride forks.
The SmartShock were first released around 1997 and were based off technology originally developed to control suspension on carrier aircraft landing gears. These units have a checkered history. The first series had seal problems and water would leak into the electronics and fry them out. The second generation units were better sealed and have seemed to have cured the problems. They work by monitoring the shaft speed and acceleration. A piezoelectric valve is used to control flow through the compression damping chamber. The unit has three settings. A "firm" setting effectively locks out the shock until a big enough hit allows the suspension to become active. The "soft" setting delays the damping action and allows the shock to become more active with lower step input forces. The third setting is the "intelligent" mode which is the normal mode of operation and employs the shaft position sensor to determine the damping qualities. Should the electronics fail, the shock acts as a normal NR-2 coil shock which has mechanical adjustments as well for rebound/compression.