Experienced High-tech Inventors Launch New Company
Innovative Network Technologies to Redefine the "Copper Connection"
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 1998--Less than 18 months after they challenged the conventional wisdom about copper wiring limits, accomplished inventors Andrew Heller and Barry Thornton have recruited a top-flight executive team and launched a company to market products that dramatically increase the usable bandwidth in existing wiring and radio space.
Innovative Network Technologies(TM) (INT) was unveiled today by Andrew Heller, co-founder and chairman, and Joe Formichelli, president and chief operating officer.
''We've discovered and patented some concepts about analog technology and copper wiring that will have a huge impact on business and education communications, especially for those considering upgrading their premises wiring to increase bandwidth,'' said Heller. ''INT will market several products to solve this dilemma, saving customers a great deal of time and money in the process.''
Heller is a 30-year veteran of the computer industry who was widely honored for his achievements at IBM before he left to help launch more than a half dozen other successful companies including HaL Computer Systems, S3, RAMBUS and Smart Technologies. Joining Heller at INT is Formichelli, another IBM veteran with 30 years of business and manufacturing experience.
Formichelli led the phenomenally successful IBM ThinkPad group, earned a Sloan Fellowship and was most recently president and CEO of Hayes Microcomputer Products.
''One of the major benefits INT will offer customers is a model approach for reducing the total cost of ownership for their computing environments,'' said Formichelli.
Chief Technology Officer and INT co-founder Barry Thornton has spent 30 years in the analog/consumer industry, has successfully launched four companies, and holds patents and copyrights for computer software, video, audio and fiber optics. Robert Hartman, INT vice president of sales, has more than 20 years experience in national and international marketing and sales in the high-tech industry. He is credited with pioneering the worldwide de facto standard for network licensing.
In 1994, Thornton met Heller and the two began talking about innovative ways to provide ''last-mile'' high-bandwidth connectivity using existing infrastructure. INT was founded as a research entity in November 1996 after Heller and Thornton began testing assumed limits of copper wiring that have gone largely unchallenged since the 1960s. By applying today's methods to all-but-abandoned research of more than 30 years ago, INT has created technologies that were unthinkable in the analog heydays. Among their breakthrough findings was a way to dramatically reduce the cost of solving the ''last-mile'' bandwidth problem.
During their research, Heller and Thornton set up successful field trials for their inventions, solving wiring issues for the Texas State Capitol and Dresser Industries. The Capitol challenge involved ''rewiring'' the building without removing or replacing installed wiring. For Dresser, INT inventions enabled VGA displays in gas pumps to be operated by a system unit located in a building far from the gas pumps.
INT will release several products in 1998, each consisting of one or more INT proprietary inventions and standards for implementation.
INT has received financial backing in excess of $2.6 million from Austin Ventures, TDC through its U.S. affiliate Origin Partners and Seed Company Partners, as well as from a select group of private investors experienced in high technology and communications companies. Located in the rolling hills just west of Austin, Texas, the company plans to introduce a wide range of solutions that will economically stretch the transmission limits of billions of miles of installed copper wiring. Among the company's early products will be devices that use analog technology and ZCM modulation, equalization and filtering techniques to move digital signals at very high speeds. For more information, call INT at 512/266-8115. |
