(COMTEX) B: Interphase Introduces Onboard ATM Processing Capability
B: Interphase Introduces Onboard ATM Processing Capability
Jan. 09, 2001 (Fiber Optics News, Vol. 21, No. 2 via COMTEX) -- By Cindy H.
Dubin
Dallas-based Interphase [INPH] will release its intelligent asynchronous
transfer mode (ATM) controller for the third-generation wireless 4532 ATM OC-
3/STM-1 PMC controller in the first quarter of 2001.
The 4532 communications controller allows carriers of wireless services and
existing optical infrastructures to provide faster networking systems with
higher capacity and efficiency for advanced voice, video and data convergence.
The 4532 is a PCI mezzanine card that works with CompactPCI, VME or proprietary
systems, and allows these systems to have direct connectivity to SONET and SDH
optical networks.
The 4532 is one in a series of products that Interphase is releasing that have
more on-board intelligence than typical I/O adapters or line cards, says Linsey
Matthews, product marketing manager for Interphase. "If you look at most
telecommunications infrastructure equipment today, a lot of it is based on
switching equipment, which is large and expensive and manufactured by a very
small list of telecommunications OEMs," she says. "CompactPCI is an emerging
standard for the creation of computer-based, server-based equipment that can
bring a lot of the features and functionality of the large switching equipment
onto a computing platform. CompactPCI is becoming the de facto standard for
telecommunications server-based equipment."
Matthews says CompactPCI offers several advantages, such as the ability to allow
multiple slots on the same system chassis to share information. "In the case of
our product, it allows the 4532 ATM controller to exchange data with other cards
on the system. CompactPCI and the 4532 Communications Controller allows the user
to take all the intelligence processing of several different servers and
switches in a central office environment, and bring them onto one computer-based
platform, saving real estate investment for that equipment."
The Interphase card allows the incorporation on-board ATM switching functions.
"Essentially, we take functions typically performed by an ATM switch, and bring
it onboard to the server where bandwidth may be aggregated and processed," she
says. "There are savings in the number of access modules you have to have in the
network."
Interphase claims that the 4532 is the first commercial, off-the-shelf, carrier
class SONET interface. "We are well ahead of the marketplace in terms of
intelligent ATM switching," says Matthews. "There are ATM adapters that perform
segmentation and reassembly onboard, but they don't have any intelligence
processing capability or any master capability to control functions from their
system slot or nonsystem slot. Our product is able to do that."
(Linsey Matthews, Interphase Corp., 214/654-5000.)
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Copyright Phillips Publishing, Inc.
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