Chip Engines another ALSC investment:
IEEE Working Group Progresses Toward Resilient Packet Ring Standard
Record Turnout for Interim Meeting
Membership of RPR Alliance Advocacy Group Strengthens
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 19, 2001--The Resilient Packet Ring Alliance, an industry advocacy group promoting the standardization of resilient packet ring (RPR) technology, today announced that the IEEE 802.17 Working Group made further progress on the development of the draft RPR standard during its interim meeting held last week in San Jose, Calif.
Working group members made more than 30 detailed technical presentations and held objective technical discussions regarding RPR features. During the meeting, attendees agreed on the outline of the final draft and made significant progress toward a final standard.
The IEEE 802.17 Working Group interim meeting had a record turnout of 142 attendees representing network equipment vendors, semiconductor vendors, network chip companies, carriers, service providers, members of the academic community, and industry consultants from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Chip Engines, a fabless semiconductor company that is the first to develop a family of integrated circuits based on RPR, MPLS, and DSCP, participated in the meeting as a new member of the RPR Alliance. This expands the RPR Alliance membership roster to 17 leading companies. In addition, NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY - news), a leading provider of global Internet solutions, increased its participation by upgrading its status to a principal member.
``We made excellent progress at last week's meeting, moving from initial presentations to detailed written contributions,'' said Robert Love, chair of the RPR Alliance and vice chair of the IEEE 802.17 Working Group. ``With these contributions, we can now move to the next stage of RPR standards development. We welcome the new membership additions, as the RPR effort continues to build momentum.''
The RPR specification is being crafted so that metro networks can carry more data with greater reliability and efficiency and at lower cost. RPR will support carrier-class, service-level-agreement (SLA)-based metro Ethernet, IP, and legacy TDM services. The RPR Alliance was founded to support the standardization effort and educate the global market on the benefits of RPR. The Alliance provides input on the technology and market dynamics impacting RPR technology to the IEEE 802.17 working group that is developing the RPR standard, the first draft of which is expected in Q1 2002. The working group is assigned with defining a Media Access Control (MAC) protocol that will be used in local, metropolitan, and wide area networks (LANs, MANs, and WANs). With RPR, metropolitan area service providers can create high-speed, survivable ring networks designed for Internet protocol and other packet data. Moreover, compatibility and interoperability among RPR vendors will be priorities, thus allowing providers to create global networks without being overly reliant on one vendor's equipment.
About the Resilient Packet Ring Alliance
The RPR Alliance, founded in January 2001, is an industry advocacy group committed to the development of an RPR technology standard for the networking industry. The Alliance promotes the adoption of an RPR standard for LANs, MANs, and WANs by educating the networking industry about RPR technology and the benefits of an IEEE standard and encouraging multi-vendor interoperability. Principal members of the RPR Alliance include Alcatel, Alidian Networks, AuroraNetics, Ciena, Cisco Systems, Corrigent Systems, Dynarc, Lantern Communications, Luminous Networks, Mindspeed Technologies, NEC Corporation, Nortel Networks, Riverstone Networks, and Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation. Avaya Communication, Chip Engines, and Huawei Tech Co. are participating members in the Alliance. For more information about the alliance, see www.RPRAlliance.org.
About Chip Engines, Newest RPR Alliance Member
Chip Engines, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, is developing a family of integrated circuits based on RPR and MPLS for MAN switching and routing systems. The company's MAN building blocks enable telecommunication system OEMs to offer equipment that makes it profitable for carriers and service providers to replace traditional fixed bandwidth, flat-rate services with differentiated classes of service for voice, data, audio, and video applications.
The company was incorporated in October 2000 and initiated product development in January 2001. Funded by Alliance Ventures and private investors, Chip Engines secured its first round of venture finance in July 2001. The company has 87 employees and maintains corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., and a design center in India.
biz.yahoo.com |
