[USRX ADSL vs Intel chip]
More good stuff from AOL board.
<<3Com will respond to Intel's NIC
challenge by tapping DSP technology
By Stephen Lawson
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 4:24 PM PT, May 9, 1997
LAS VEGAS -- 3Com may have a trick up its sleeve to counter adapter rival Intel's
expected integration of network interface cards into the PC motherboard.
3Com could use digital signal processor (DSP) technology from U.S. Robotics to
provide a single chip on a motherboard with adapter, modem, or Digital Subscriber Line
modem functionality, said Dave Tolwinski, general manager of 3Com's switching division,
this week at the NetWorld+Interop show here.
Tolwinski also said DSPs could be used in switches as a silicon core that could easily be
upgraded with new switching functionality, including features to support 3Com's
TranscendWare policy-based networking architecture.
The executive's comments followed a press conference at NetWorld+Interop in which
CEO Eric Benhamou outlined some of 3Com's plans following the U.S. Robotics
acquisition, which is expected to be complete this summer.
3Com will offer the lowest cost of ownership in the networking industry and will add
value through TranscendWare, which will provide plug-and-play access to enterprise
networks from any location, Benhamou said.
TranscendWare will leverage code on 3Com's adapters and modems to carry out
policies that control individual users' access to resources on the network.
Observers said the use of DSPs, a type of software-controlled chip that to date has been
mostly used in modems, could be a boon to 3Com's strategy.
The processors could give 3Com an edge in adapter capabilities and give PC makers a
good reason to snub communications-capable motherboards from Intel, according to
Esmeralda Silva, an analyst at International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass.
Silva said manufacturers such as Dell and Acer, that currently bundle 3Com adapters into
PCs, would prefer not to use the Intel motherboards because they want to be shackled as
little as possible to the CPU giant.
And because the same chip could be leveraged for many applications, 3Com might be
able to produce the DSPs less expensively than it can make application-specific
integrated circuits, Silva added.
Acacia Networks currently builds switches around DSPs and has touted this feature as a
key benefit of its upcoming pre-standard Gigabit Ethernet products.
3Com Corp., in Santa Clara, Calif., can be reached at (408) 764-5000 or
3com.com;
Bob |
