Yet another DSL Startup.
New company throws its hat in the ring for dsl chipsets. See Business Wire article below:
Centillium Debuts With a New Consumer-Oriented DSL Technology
Feb-09-1998 8:58 AM, BUSINESS WIRE, Business Editors and Computer Write
FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 9, 1998--Centillium Technology
Corporation, a new semiconductor company led by the highly-successful entrepreneur
Kamran Elahian and backed by leading venture capital firms including U.S. Venture
Partners and Walden Ventures, made its official debut Monday with an innovative Digital
Subscriber Line (DSL) technology that will allow consumers and businesses to surf the
Web up to twenty times faster than with standard modems, using regular phone lines.
Centillium's DSL technology dramatically, easily, and cost- effectively increases
bandwidth for both consumers and businesses, speeding Internet access and making
possible applications such as network gaming, large e-mail attachments and two-way
videoconferencing. Centillium's DSL technology enables digital data to move over the
millions of miles of regular copper lines that is already installed.
While many observers have touted DSL as the ideal solution to Internet traffic bottlenecks,
telephone companies have delayed rollouts because of technical problems such as complex central
office installation requirements, and the high cost and low port density of DSL rack equipment.
Consumers also have been slow to demand DSL service because customer premises equipment is
expensive and lacks the ease of plug-and-play installation.
Centillium's consumer-oriented version of DSL, which the company calls Universal DSL(TM)
technology, makes DSL as easy to deploy as POTS (plain old telephone service) and is as
affordable as analog modem technology. At the same time, UDSL provides more than enough
bandwidth for today's average consumer or business user. As a result, Centillium believes its
solution will prove popular with telephone companies, end users, and Internet service providers
(ISPs).
"Centillium has a very practical approach to DSL," said Gregory Sheppard, Director and Principal
Analyst, semiconductor applications markets, Dataquest. "Centillium's Universal DSL addresses
the critical issues local exchange carriers will face when deploying DSL on a wide scale such as
reducing power consumption, achieving high-port densities on line cards, and minimizing the
amount of network engineering required to provide service."
"We believe Centillium's technology will create no less than a revolution in communications," said
Mr. Elahian, Chairman and co- founder, Centillium Technology. "The market has been waiting for
a solution that not only leverages the telephone companies' existing copper infrastructures, but it
also provides more than enough bandwidth for today's average consumer or business user.
Centillium's technology turns the vision of fast, affordable Internet access into a reality," added Mr.
Elahian.
According to Dataquest, the worldwide revenue for DSL equipment is projected to grow to $2.5
billion by the year 2000. Product Introduction Planned for 1998
Centillium plans to introduce DSL chip set solutions based on its UDSL technology later in 1998.
Centillium will market its chip sets directly to manufacturers of central office equipment such as
central office switches, digital loop carriers, and access concentrators, as well as makers of
end-user modems. A Pioneer in Consumer-Oriented DSL Technology
Earlier this year, computer industry leaders Compaq, Intel, and Microsoft announced that they had
joined with leading telephone and technology companies to form the Universal ADSL Working
Group (UAWG) which will drive the creation of industry standards for a consumer-oriented
version of ADSL.
"Centillium has been developing consumer-oriented DSL technology since its founding -- almost a
year before the PC industry leaders decided to advocate this type of technology," commented
Faraj Aalaei, Centillium's vice president of marketing. "We believe that the efforts of the UAWG is
a powerful endorsement of Centillium's DSL strategy." Industry Views of Centillium
"What significant about Centillium's UDSL approach is that it is more than a modem technology.
Rather, UDSL is a transmission technology that allows services with different requirements to
coexist on the same wire, for example, circuit-switched and cell switched. Service providers will
be able to take advantage of this important feature to offer variety of integrated services to both
residential and business customers," said Boris Auerbuch, Chief Technical Officer of Premisys
Communications, Inc.
"One of the key elements for the successful launch of a mass deployable technology is ease of
installation by the network providers. Centillium's UDSL will give the network provider a low cost
solution which is as easy to deploy as POTS, especially considering the difficult issue of in-house
wiring. This will enable the telcos to quickly and cost effectively ramp up deployment," said Rick
Jones, Executive Vice President of Broadband Technologies, Inc. About Centillium
Founded in April 1997, Centillium Technology is a fabless semiconductor company developing
consumer-oriented Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) solutions for manufacturers of
telecommunications equipment. The company was co-founded by Kamran Elahian, one of the best
known figures in Silicon Valley. Mr. Elahian has co-founded two highly successful semiconductor
companies, Neomagic and Cirrus Logic, as well as numerous other ventures.
Centillium has raised over $20 million from several leading investment firms, including U.S. Venture
Partners, Walden International Ventures, Vertex Ventures, Korea Technology Banking, and
VentureStar, as well corporate investors that include Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric,
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Askey Computer, and ZyXEL Communications.
Additional information on Centillium is available at centillium.com. SIDEBAR
Unlocking DSL's Potential: Centillium's Technology Solution
Centillium's technology solves three main issues that have hindered widespread DSL availability:
deployment challenges, power consumption, and cost. Solving the Deployment Problem
The first problem with present DSL technologies is that they are difficult to deploy and require
complex installation processes. Network engineers must make sure that copper lines are "clean"
and the distance between the central office and the end user does not exceed the limit of 18,000
feet.
UDSL uses a single pair of copper wires and supports long distance connections over 18,000 feet.
In the central office, digital loop and access concentrator equipment based on UDSL chip sets will
be as easy to deploy as POTS equipment. Telephone companies simply pull existing line cards and
replace them with true plug-and-play UDSL cards. Centillium's Adaptive Line Drive technology
enables telcos to deploy UDSL products on copper lines with varying conditions, further reducing
installation and network engineering efforts. For end users, UDSL-based customer premises
equipment is as easy to deploy as standard plug-and-play analog modems. Solving the Power
Consumption Problem
The second issue is that DSL line cards consume high amounts of power. High power
consumption generates heat, which prevents carriers from putting large numbers of DSL line cards
into a single central office rack. This in turn increases the cost per port of the central office
equipment.
To solve this problem, Centillium is developing a highly integrated chip that contains the most DSL
functionality on a single device. This enables telecommunications equipment manufacturers to
create high-density line cards that are cost effective and consume very low amounts of power.
These UDSL-based line cards enable telephone companies to deploy line cards with higher port
densities at lower costs.
In addition to high levels of integration, Centillium's digital signal processing technology also
provides very high levels of performance because it is optimized specifically for DSL applications.
Centillium believes that its DSP technology is currently one full generation ahead of the
competition. Solving the Cost Problem
The third problem with today's technologies is cost. DSL technology requires new modem-like
devices on both the user and telco end of the line. Today, these devices are very expensive,
costing anywhere from $900 to $1,500 per modem pair.
Centillium's UDSL technology solves this problem by lowering the cost of central office and
customer premises equipment. Terminal equipment based on UDSL technology will be price
competitive with today's 56K analog modem technologies. This brings the cost of DSL technology
to the point where mass deployment of digital subscriber lines by carriers and ISPs becomes
economically viable.
Centillium's UDSL technology also supports rate provisioning, enabling service providers to offer
multi-tiered services. For example, casual Internet users might choose 256Kbps access while
power users could pay a higher fee for 1Mbps access.
regards, vincenzo |
