As the market for enhanced communications products and services grows, the number of
vendors operating in the “enabling technology” space is growing as well. It
seems like every day I hear about someone else who is designing the next new DSP or system
chip to do more than what has been done before,
and to do it faster, in less space, and with lower power requirements than what came
before as well.
Keeping up with developments down at the board level is a full-time job, and a
developer needs to answer multiple questions before even “breaking ground” on a
new project — what architecture should you use, what protocols do you need to
support, what OS would be the most effective, how important (and how costly) is
interoperability, and so on.
And as always, there is the time-to-market pressure. If you had time enough, you could
do research on all of the relevant details for months or even years beforehand, and then
begin developing only after you feel sure that you have surveyed the terrain and are
setting off with full awareness of what obstacles lie in your path and how you will
overcome them.
Unfortunately, time is perhaps the most precious resource of all these days. It seems
like anyone who can spell “dot com” can raise a few million in venture capital,
but customers and investors want results in months, even weeks, and there is no time
available for exhaustive research. It’s “full steam ahead” right from the
get-go.
So my aim with this section is to look at what’s happening with technology down in
the system — the enabling technology that makes it possible to run all the
applications that are making it easier for us to communicate and provide customer service,
and just generally do business. What are the trends, and are they worth following, and
what does all the talk of the speed and openness mean to you, bottom line — these are
some of the issues that I intend to discuss in this section.
This month, I would direct your attention to the news items that follow this introduction,
and then to Mike Coffee’s excellent article regarding the MSP Consortium’s M.100
specification for separating media stream processing software from the underlying hardware
platform.
So, welcome to the Enabling Technology section of Communications Solutions™, and I
encourage you to let me know if there is anything in particular you would like to hear
more about. You can e-mail me directly at lguevin@tmcnet.com
—Chris Donner
Enabling Technologies And Developments
News
Racal Selects Blue Wave’s Comstruct DSPs
Racal Recorders has selected Blue Wave Systems’ ComStruct family of DSP
building blocks for its latest digital voice recorder. Blue Wave’s CPCI/C6400 DSP
hardware platform and FACT management and control software will be used in Racal’s
latest recorder, which is scheduled to begin shipping during the first quarter of 2000.
The CPCI/C6400 high density platform employs four C6000 series DSPs and is optimized for
resilient multi-channel processing.
No. 512, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Blue Wave/Telogy Provide High-Density CompactPCI DSP Platform
Blue Wave Systems’ new CPCI/C5400 DSP platform is based on the TI TMS320C5420 DSP,
and quickly provides telecom designers with the processing power they need to deliver
carrier-class voice, fax, and data services. In conjunction with Telogy’s Golden
Gateway software package, the CPCI/C5400 provides 120+ channels of simultaneous voice,
fax, or data over IP calls in a single CPCI slot. The Telogy Golden Gateway package
provides a complete voice, fax, and data software solution, including fully integrated
H.323 and MGCP stacks. The board is split into four discrete processing blocks, each with
its own processor, DSPs, RAM, and Ethernet interface, for connecting up to four T1/E1
network interfaces.
No. 513, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
RadiSys Launches New CP80 CPCI Board
The CP80-12 is the newest member of RadiSys’s CP80 CompactPCI chassis family, and it
furthers the company’s goal of providing the OEM market with chassis that feature
both high availability and a highly configurable design format. The CP80-12 is a 12U tall,
rackmountable chassis that is NEBS/ETSI-compliant and is designed for a variety of telecom
and datacom applications, including VoIP and Internet access. The chassis features a
hot-swappable fan module, one or two hot-swappable 500W AC/DC power supplies, and two
different media bays, depending on system requirements. Additionally, the CP80-12 utilizes
Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) specifications for system management,
allowing for detection and correction of potential problems before they occur and
including an alarm module for monitoring of all management data in an IPMI-compliant event
log storage.
No. 514, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Force Computers PMC/860 For Serial I/O Interfaces
Force Computers announced the availability of the PMC/860-SIO for Telecommunications
Network Management (TMN), AIN, data communications, and legacy system communications using
either two or four serial I/O interfaces. The new PMC module includes a subsystem for the
processor (a Motorola PowerQUICC), I/O and PCI interface, and auto-sensing connector
interfaces that self-configure to support a broad range of communications protocols. Each
card contains 16 MB of DRAM and 265 KB SRAM for fast data access, in addition to running
the communications protocol stacks locally, to boost performance. The PMC/860-SIO provides
OEMs with a powerful building block for SS7, LAPD, X.25, OSI, or Frame Relay applications.
No. 515, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Philips Announces Embedded DSP Strategy
Philips Semiconductors, with the acquisition of VLSI Technology, is taking aim at embedded
technology, intending to compete to provide low-cost, low-power system-on-a-chip solutions
for high performance applications such as speech recognition and consumer electronic
devices. The goal is to both increase performance and reduce time-to-market for
developers. Philips is focused on designing common development platforms for multiple
application domains, implementing the re-use of silicon cores and embedded software
modules to reduce costs while maintaining a relationship between architecture, ASIC
implementation, and development tools.
No. 516, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
OpenCon And Zarak To Offer Complete GR-303 Testing
OpenCon Systems and Zarak Systems have allied to offer an Embedded Operations
Channel (EOC) simulator for testing a GR-303 interface. Zarak’s Abacus test system
has been incorporated into an embedded system solution from OpenCon Systems. The protocol
stack is maintained on the user’s PC while the ECO is generated over a T1 from the PC
to the Abacus platform. With this solution, the Abacus system is able to perform
operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning (OAM&P) in addition to
providing call generation and path verification. The combination allows users to test the
performance of a remote digital terminal using a single solution.
No. 517, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
I-Bus Intros RR4 Raid Enclosure
I-Bus has introduced the RR4 enclosure, designed specifically for
high-availability applications and for ease of maintenance. The RR4 is a 4U high,
rackmount enclosure that hold up to eight drives in removable, locking bays. Additionally,
the enclosure can hold up to four 400W power supplies and has a drive mount bracket that
allows for horizontal mounting where required.
No. 518, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
RADVision H.323 Stack: More Features, Smaller Footprint
RADVision has announced Version 2.5 of their H.323 protocol toolkit for
developing voice and video over IP products and services. Enhancements to the new version
include a smaller memory footprint, multithread protection, expanded support for Windows
CE platforms, and support for Native ATM. The H.323 core protocol makes possible real-time
voice and video H.323 calls over IP networks, and the embedded stack is required of all
H.323 entities regardless of their location in the network.
No. 519, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
General Micro Unveils New Multiprocessors
General Micro Systems has announced two new multiprocessors based on Intel’s
Coppermine-256 processors. The Atlas-C is built on a CompactPCI form factor, while the
Atlas-V is designed for the VMEbus architecture. Both systems feature clock speeds of up
to 733 MHz and provide support for symmetric and real-time asymmetric multiprocessing,
allowing the two Coppermine processors to work in parallel on the same programs in a
manner that is transparent to both the programmer and the application. Both systems
include dual 10/100 Mbps Ethernet interfaces, a 40 Mbps UltraWide SCSI interface, and a
64-bit AGP graphics engine with 4 MB RAM. Both processors run a variety of operating
systems, including Windows NT, Solaris x86, QNX, and VxWorks, and both are available for
shipping immediately.
No. 520, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
MiTAC Intros New Embedded Board
MiTAC has introduced the MSC-6540A, an embedded, full-featured computer board with
built-in audio, VGA, and Ethernet/Fast Ethernet controllers on a small form factor design
(8” x 5.7”). The MSC-6450A is designed to support lower power consumption CPUs,
including the Pentium P54C/P55C MMX, Cyrix’s M1/M2, and AMD’s K5/k6-2/k6-3. It
also provides onboard support for a range of CRT and LCD displays.
No. 521, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Compaq Offers RADVision Toolkit For Service Platform
Compaq Computer has signed an agreement with RADVision to bundle
RADVision’s H.323 gatekeeper toolkit in Compaq’s Internet Enhanced Services
Platform on Tru64 UNIX and the IN7 environment. The IESP is a 64-bit UNIX-based VoIP
gatekeeper platform built on Compaq’s 64-bit Alpha processors, and it offers
deployment flexibility, high scalability, and high throughput for both enterprise and
carrier-class configurations. Using the IESP, developers can offer product suites that
deliver enhanced services through either the PSTN or packet-based networks.
No. 522, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo
Marvell’s M88E3080 DSP Passes Interoperability Test
Marvell has announced that its M88E3080 family of octal DSP Fast Ethernet PHY transceiver
products has passed tests developed by the University of New Hampshire for ensuring the
reliability of data transfer. The tests measure for base line wander, kill pattern,
guaranteed packet delivery, and total data integrity over a variety of grades and
conditions of CAT 5 cabling.
No. 523, www.comsolmag.com/freeinfo |
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