There must be money to be made in this industry, everybody wants in.
A startup company based in Austin, Texas, plans to introduce silicon-based products beginning in the summer that will use analog technology to deliver high-speed transmission capabilities over existing telephone lines.
Innovative Network Technologies Inc. (INT) was founded by Andrew Heller, who serves as chairman, and Barry Thornton, chief technology officer. Joe Formichelli has been named the company's president and chief operating officer.
INT has about 17 patents related to communications technology, Formichelli said. The company is backed by a $2.6 million investment from an Austin-based venture-capital fund and other private investors.
"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," Heller said.
By applying modern manufacturing techniques to analog research "all but abandoned" more than 30 years ago, INT intends to deliver silicon-based products that will enable "last mile" data rates of 100 Mbits/s and higher at a reduced cost over competing full-digital solutions, according to Heller.
An Austin company is manufacturing the INT solution, which will be housed in a 1.5-in. x 6-in. x 5-in. box, Formichelli said. The company plans to reduce the solution to a chip set over the coming months.
"Just a few years ago, the circuits needed to do this kind of thing were very expensive," he said. "Today we're talking about transistors per penny, compared to transistors per dollar a few years ago."
Heller is a former IBM executive who led the development of the company's RISC microprocessors, and later helped launch such companies as HaL Computer Systems, Rambus Inc., and S3 Inc. Formichelli headed IBM's ThinkPad notebook-computer operation, and was most recently president and chief executive of Hayes Microcomputer Products. |
