[TI's DSPs:]
Here's the October press release for those who want to refresh their memories:
Amati and TI Announce Agreement To Jointly Develop And Market Discrete Multi-Tone Technology For ADSL Modems Based on TI DSPs
TI and Amati To Provide DMT Expertise in Software Implementation,
Using TI High Performance, Fixed-Point DSP Components for Flexible ADSL Designs
San Jose, CA, October 16, 1996 Amati Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: AMTX) and Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE:
TXN) today announced an agreement to jointly develop Asymmetric
Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) core technology based on TIs
MS320 Digital Signal Processors (DSP). The combination of both
TIs and Amatis Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) expertise and TIs position as the worlds leading DSP solutions supplier will further enable the development of new technology for the design of ADSL interface devices.
Amati is a technology leader in high-speed ADSL implementation using the DMT standard as approved by the T1E1 committee. The technology was first developed by Amati, who holds patent rights on key design elements. DMT enhances ADSL by enabling transmission at speeds up to 6.144 Mbps downstream and up to 640 Kbps upstream for ADSL connections using existing twisted-pair copper lines without interfering with regular telephone service.
"This alliance with Amati represents a significant step toward our future involvement with the growing ADSL market," said Terry Riley, Director, business development Access business unit within Texas Instruments. "TIs and Amatis design capabilities, combined with TI DSPs and analog front-end chips, will enable the design of ADSL
modems that are more cost effective and more flexible than alternative designs."
"The combination of TIs DSPs and Amatis ADSL expertise are expected to lead to future ADSL modem and access system designs that will be able to offer - through the use of effective software design - more features per modem and even more modems per silicon IC," said James Steenbergen, President and CEO of Amati.
The agreement calls for the combined effort by both companies to
develop ADSL solutions. Amati and TI will provide the core ADSL
software based on their respective DMT technology. TI will then
market the software along with their DSP and analog front-end components for customers implementing ADSL system interfaces. In
addition to the key efforts between the two companies in the development of ADSL software, TI will also be a key partner for
Amati in their system development. With the growing need for
Ethernet and ATM access to be integrated with ADSL, TIs experience
in other data communication technologies and protocols will enable
Amati to support such requirements. TI will provide software and
integrated circuits for communication interfaces compatible with their
DSP components. Amati will then have use of these core designs for
system development and access products.
TI has been developing DMT algorithmic expertise since 1978 and
has made major strides in complexity reduction. This expertise enables
DMT ADSL modems to be implemented in fully programmable DSP
platforms, while still remaining highly cost competitive.
Amati has been developing their core software technology since 1992
and recently released the first commercial implementation of an ADSL
modem capable of up to 8 Mbps downstream data transmission while
supporting 640 Kbps in the return direction. Amati believes that
alternative ADSL solutions are only capable of much slower data rates and are less robust in terms of real world telephone copper wire
conditions. Amatis technology has been tested throughout the world in both video and Internet access applications.
"TIs DSP technology plays a key role in many of todays advanced
interfaces and these interfaces will be needed to assure that future
ADSL systems meet the desired network architecture," said
Steenbergen. "An effective combination of ADSL and data
technologies is an important part of the expansion of ADSL services
throughout the world. The agreement between Amati and TI assures
future ADSL solutions will be constructed using the latest DSP
technology and the most advanced ADSL software implementation,
two important factors required for full-service network availability of ADSL in the future," added Steenbergen.
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