[November 11, 2004]

Broadcom Adds Chips to IP Phones

BY JOHANNE TORRES

Toshiba's IPT1020-SD enterprise IP telephones will now carry Irvine, CA-based Broadcom Corporation’s BCM1113 Internet Protocol (IP) phone chips. The companies made the announcement today. The BCM1113 IP phone chip is designed for enterprise IP phones, which allow users to make and receive voice calls over the Internet using an Ethernet LAN connection in the office.

The dual port integrated Ethernet switch capability in the BCM1113 enables manufacturers to develop IP phones that use the Ethernet switch connections of the IP Phone to support both voice calls through the phone and data traffic to the PC. Broadcom says this capability offers significant cost savings to businesses by eliminating the need to have two Ethernet connections in an office or to add switch ports in the wiring closet to support Voice over IP ( VoIP ) (define - news - alert - tutorial). With the chip, Toshiba (news – alert – quote) will then be able to offer an economical, high-performance IP phone solution to its customers and expand its enterprise Strata CTX digital business communication system product portfolio.

The BCM1113 features a MIPS32 RISC processor to support advanced computer telephony integration (CTI) applications, and a dual-MAC digital signal processor (DSP). The chip's integrated Ethernet MACs and wire-speed non-blocking 10/100 Ethernet switch support IEEE 802.1p packet prioritization and 802.1Q VLAN identification. Also integrated in the BCM1113 are analog CODECs capable of supporting both narrowband 8 Kilohertz (KHz) and wideband 16 KHz sampling, which in conjunction with wideband voice coders, such as the BroadVoice32 coder, will enable IP phone networks to deliver high-fidelity voice transmission. The Ethernet transceivers are designed and tested to withstand 2000 volts of cable-sourced electrostatic discharge (CESD), which prevents the system from being damaged or destroyed due to electric discharge during installation and cable insertion.

"We are pleased to announce that our IP phone chip is now shipping as a standard component within Toshiba's Strata CTX enterprise IP phones, which is a significant milestone for Broadcom, since Toshiba is recognized in the industry as an experienced, long-time enterprise telephony equipment company," said Paul Shore, Broadcom's director of VoIP client products. "Our relationship with Toshiba is yet another example of how industry leaders are looking to Broadcom to provide them with innovative, high-quality voice IP solutions to support the transition from time-division multiplexing (TDM) to VoIP network services."

Toshiba’s IPT1020-SD phone—a key component of the Strata CTX system, enables remote users to enjoy the same productivity features as those on the main office telephone network. The IPT1020-SD offers customers extension-to-extension dialing, busy lamp field (BLF) station status display, paging over telephone speakers, off-hook call announce over the telephone handset, voice mail and many other advanced telephony features.

"Broadcom's feature-rich devices and outstanding technical support have enabled us to quickly and efficiently bring new cost-effective enterprise IP phones to market," said Kiyoshi Ishikawa, senior manager of the business communication system department at Toshiba. "The chip's high level of silicon integration and the proven reliability of the VoIP firmware package that operates on the chip have significantly reduced the development complexity and risk of our new IP phone programs."

Broadcom Corporation
http://www.broadcom.com