11:30 [LU] LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES DIVISION ANNOUNCES NEW NETWORKING CHIP
LU Announces Industry's Broadest Family of Communications Chips for New Home Networking Market
PR Newswire - October 06, 1998 11:40
Company Signs License For HomeRun(TM), Tut Systems' Technology
ALLENTOWN, Pa., Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Lucent Technologies
Microelectronics Group today announced Home Wire(TM), the
industry's broadest family of communications chips for the new home
networking market. The new offer will allow consumers to
simultaneously access computer files and the Internet, print and fax
documents and play video games, from any home PC -- using one
Internet connection, one modem and one phone line. Lucent's home
networking products are based on home networking technology tested
for reliability in more than 300 U.S. homes.
Based on Lucent's system-level expertise, Lucent's digital signal
processor (DSP) and local area network (LAN) chip offerings initially
will combine home networking capabilities with up to 56 kilobit per
second (kbps)* and digital subscriber line (DSL) modem applications,
as well as LAN applications.
"Lucent is one of the few companies in the world that has the breadth of
solutions -- including multiple, programmable DSPs -- needed to
integrate the pieces for home networking applications," said Will
Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, a DSP market research firm.
"And backed by the research and development prowess of Bell Labs,
Lucent is an undisputed leader in communications chips and home
wiring, which are going to be the engines that drive the home
networking market."
Lucent's family of solutions, capable of data transmission rates of up to
1 megabit per second (mbps) -- 18 times the speed of today's fastest
single-line analog modems which run at up to 56 kbps -- will be
available in the first quarter of 1999. In addition, in the second half of
1999 Home Wire will provide home networking capability for data
transfer rates up to 10 mbps -- more than 175 times the speed of 56
kbps modems. Such high-speed capabilities will help with faster
transporting of high-bandwidth files, such as graphics and video, and
avert signal collisions between peripheral devices as more are added to
home networks.
Lucent's Home Wire announcement demonstrates the company's
commitment to the goals of the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance
(HomePNA(TM)**), of which it is a founding member. The
HomePNA is a consortium of companies, including Compaq, Lucent,
Intel, and Tut Systems, that aim to deliver easy-to-use, affordable,
high-speed networking solutions over existing telephone wires. Home
networking systems are expected to be sold at only $100 per
connection.
Lucent's chips comply with HomeRun home networking technology
licensed from fellow HomePNA founding member Tut Systems.
HomeRun helps create inexpensive in-home LANs by tapping into
ordinary copper phone wire and using bandwidth that until now was
unused. Together, Home Wire and Home Run technologies will offer
fast and flexible home networking capabilities to the 15 million U.S.
homes*** with two or more PCs.
"Lucent's home networking solutions will help end the 'tug-of-wars'
gripping the growing number of households that have more than one
PC," said Craig Garen, general manager of modem integrated circuits
with Lucent's Microelectronics Group. "There will be no more vying to
use the same modem and Internet connection simultaneously, no more
family feuding to use the only printer in the house, and no more drilling
holes in home walls to install new wires."
The initial Home Wire solutions will capitalize on home networking
technology combined with Lucent's DSP-based Mars(TM) and
Apollo(TM) (164x) modem chip sets, both of which offer up to 56
kbps, V.90-compatible modem transmission speeds using desktop or
notebook computers. The Mars and Apollo architectures use a PC's
microcontroller to minimize costs and maximize flexibility by integrating
V.90 modems with home networking capabilities.
Lucent also will offer home networking functionality along with it
low-power FASTCAT(TM) Fast Ethernet transceiver chip
(LU3X31T). As part of the PC's communications platform, the chip will
provide notebook and desktop users the flexibility of office LAN
connectivity with the same PC card that provides their home
networking and home modem connection. This flexibility will allow PC
manufacturers to customize the communications features of their PCs to
best fit the networking needs of their customers.
Lucent will also offer its WildWire(TM) DSP169x chip set (announced
for digital subscriber line (DSL) applications in May 1998) as part of its
home networking solution. Targeted for use in PCs and stand-alone
modems, the chip set allows PC users to access the Internet regardless
of whether they have traditional analog (up to 56 kbps) or DSL "Lite"
service (up to 1.5 mbps).
Lucent, which is working with other HomePNA member companies to
define the next-generation of home phone line networking technology,
aims to extend home networking transmission speeds up to 10 mbps.
For more product information, customers may call the Microelectronics
Group Customer Response Center, 800-372-2447, Dept. R89 (in
Canada, 800-553-2448, Dept. R89); fax number 610-712-4106
(especially for callers outside of North America); or write to Lucent
Technologies, Room 30L--15P-BA, 555 Union Boulevard, Allentown,
Pa., 18103.
Home networking is a market growing at 35 percent per year****.
According to Forrester Research, home networking could generate
annual sales in excess of $1 billion by 2002. Dataquest estimated that
there are currently more than 15 million U.S. homes with two or more
PCs, and this number is expected to grow to more than 22 million by
the year 2001.
Lucent Technologies designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public
and private networks, communications systems and software, data
networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronic
components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm for the
company. For more information on Lucent Technologies,
headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, visit its web site at
lucent.com.
Lucent's Microelectronics Group designs and manufactures integrated
circuits and optoelectronic components for the computer and
communications industries. The company ranks first in the world in sales
of chips for modem-equipped PCs, and is the number one seller of
chips for modem-equipped PCs in North America, with more than a 40
percent market share*****. Lucent ranks second worldwide in sales of
LAN chips******. More information about Lucent's high-speed
modem technology can be found on the Micro-electronics Group's web
site at lucent.com and at
www.lucent.com/micro/K56flex. More information about Lucent's
FASTCAT chip can be found at www.lucent.com/fastcat.
* 56 kbps technology refers to server download speeds only and
requires compatible modems at server sites. Other conditions may limit
modem speed.
** The HomePNA (www.homepna.org) is an association of
industry-leading companies working together to help ensure adoption of
a single, unified phoneline networking industry specification that will
spur development and introduction of a range of interoperable home
networking solutions from various vendors.
*** Dataquest
**** Dataquest, Forrester and Wedbush-Morgan
***** VisionQuest 2000
****** Dataquest
Graphics available upon request. SOURCE Lucent Technologies
Microelectronics Group
/CONTACT: Charlie Hartley, 908-508-8226, or 908-252-0529, or
cjhartley@lucent.com, or Samantha Baxter, 908-508-8225, or
sbaxter@lucent.com,
both of Lucent Technologies/
/Web site: lucent.com
/Web site: homepna.com
(LU)
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