Goal is reference designs for products based on Super-H MPU, Cisco software -- Cisco, Hitachi team on IP telephony
October 13, 1998 ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING TIMES via
NewsEdge Corporation : Brisbane, Calif. -
Cisco Systems Inc. and Hitachi America Ltd.
have teamed up to seed the market for
consumer-level Internet Protoco l (IP)
telephony devices.
By the end of the year, the companies hope
to complete reference designs for a swath of
products based on Hitachi's Super-H micropro
cessor and Cisco's software. The designs will
be shopped around to OEMs, including Hitachi
Ltd.
The deal gets Cisco into this market without
having to build the lower-margin consumer
devices or forge connections with distributor
s and retailers. Hitachi, for its part, gets to
further establish the Super-H family in
consumer markets.
The alliance falls under Cisco's year-old
NetWorks Program, a branding campaign
intended to accelerate the development of
networking applications for consumers. The
program licenses Cisco software, usually
incorporating a TCP/IP stack and some
device-specific tech nology.
Cisco has little expertise with selling to
consumers, and while the company might
descend into that space eventually, it plans
to mo ve through partnerships at first.
"We don't have the channel that Sony has.
We don't have the expertise in building
low-cost devices that a Hitachi or a
Samsung would have," said Steve Sneddon,
director of global alliances for Cisco's
software group. " We don't have a strong
retail channel; what we have is a small and
medium business channel."
Thus, said Sneddon, "Our long-term planning
in the consumer space is through partnering."
Cisco plans more forays into the consumer
area, in keeping with a single-provider
philosophy that would have Cisco software or
equip ment involved in every link of a
network. "The only way for us to have an
end-to-end story is for us to have our
software, our genet ic material, embedded in
part of the consumer devices," Sneddon said.
Integrated DSPs
Hitachi, meanwhile, also hopes to use its
Super-H devices with integrated
DSPs-already in use in cellular phones-to sell
into this m arket. And parent firm Hitachi Ltd.
is likely to get involved by building the actual
consumer boxes.
"Hitachi proper obviously wants to get more
into this marketplace," said Phil Thomas, a
director of strategic marketing with Hitachi
America, here. "They're looking to be an
important OEM in this space."
Both companies hope their efforts will
accelerate the development of IP telephony
for consumers, a market they think is
inevitable d ue to interest from the telephone
companies. "[AT&T's] long-distance business
is being cannibalized by people making calls
over the Internet" and by local-service
carriers, Thomas said.
In addition, Internet access has become an
obvious burden on the network, one that's
worsening as voice and video services
become av ailable. "So really, the core
networks are beginning to drive some of
this," Thomas said. "If you want to be a part
of the appliance s coming in 1999, it's very
important."
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