Eric, I had to read your post of the Ascend reply three times, and then had my insignificant other pinch me to make sure I wasn't dreaming. That is the most honest statement to come out of the Consortium - who would have thought it would have come out of Ascend. Excuse the post-mortem, but...
The 56K Modem Cards on the MAX/TNT will not be officially ready for shipping until the final revision of the K56 Flex modem technology has been approved for testing.
Still a little vague here. Final version? Does this mean that Ascend has realized the phallacy <g> of putting out 68-pin modem cards that can't be upgraded? So, they are going to wait until they have been approved for testing. Approved by whom? Seems ambiguous, but old habits are hard to break.
I understand there have been some unavoidable delays by Motorola and others in this regard. ASCEND has decided to wait until the "kinks are worked out" before releasing the 56K modem cards (DSP cards).
Hmmmm. Unavoidable delays. Is that something like "The concert has been unavoidably delayed because we have no instruments or music."? They decided to wait until the kinks are worked out? Somehow, I doubt they decided anything, but rather circumstances such as no available product decided for them.
Until (late April/May 1997?) we will have to just wait and see. I do not know if they have decided to upgrade to the 84 pin set at this point. I understand the specsheets for the technology will be available on our website over the next 60 days.
Late April/May? Do you think he means as in summer? Gee, everyone here seemed to know it would be summer before they deployed. The top dog is always the last to know, eh?
Sorry for all the run-around, but (as you may imagine) the K56FLEX and the whole 56K technology is a bit up in the air right now until a standard emerges. ASCEND of course is actively pushing for a sooner rather than later date on this.
Apology accepted. Ooops, perhaps I was too hasty. They're still going to blame it on a lack of a standard. Come on, guys - let's call a spade a spade. It's because you all got caught with your pants down, and US Robotics is going to take you to the cleaners over 56k. If word gets out and the street realizes that Ascend won't be deploying 56k until May, the recent beating it's stock has taken will seem like a cake walk.
And, lastly your comment, Eric ...
Field trials my ass.... X2 is going to win this battle.
That pretty much sums it up, Eric.
Oh, Skipper - are you paying attention?! |
