Lucent Technologies and Natural MicroSystems to Provide Interoperability for the Open Telecommunications Industry
Business Wire - October 28, 1997 09:00
%LUCENT %NATURAL-MICRO LU NMSS %NEW-JERSEY %MASSACHUSETTS %COMPUTERS %ELECTRONICS %TELECOMMUNICATIONS %INTERACTIVE %MULTIMEDIA %INTERNET %COMED V%BW P%BW
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 1997--Lucent Technologies' Microelectronics Group and Natural MicroSystems today announced they have agreed to jointly develop a family of interoperable application specific standard products (ASSPs) for the open telecommunications industry. The devices will be the first to provide a complete interface between industry-standard telephony buses and a wide variety of processors and telephony interface cards, significantly reducing the cost and time involved in developing and interconnecting open telecommunications systems.
The Ambassador(TM) series of devices will support the new H.100/H.110 telecommunications bus as specified by the Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum (ECTF). The H.100 specification, approved by the ECTF in May, is emerging as the industry-standard bus architecture for open (or proprietary) telecommunications systems such as call centers, interactive databases, work stations, voice mail, fax-back applications, intelligent peripherals and Internet telephony. Other applications include wireless base stations, private branch exchanges (PBXs) and central office (CO) systems.
The new standards are designed to work with the popular Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) and Compact PCI bus standards, but are also compatible with existing telecom buses on industry standard architecture (ISA) boards.
"Multiple telecommunication bus architectures for interconnecting PC circuit boards have created a so-called 'bus war' in the industry, hindering the expansion of the open telecommunications market," said Ed Cavanagh, product manager for Lucent's Microelectronics Group. "Now with a single interoperable bus standard in place, equipment manufacturers, systems integrators and design engineers building telecommunications applications will no longer have to choose between competing bus architectures. This makes product integration easier, increasing flexibility and reducing costs."
In designing the initial Ambassador chip for general market availability, Natural MicroSystems leveraged Lucent's library of ASIC cores and its high-speed CAM (content addressable memory) technology, which enables interoperability with many different types of telephony systems. Natural MicroSystems will test the Ambassador chips and is integrating them in its Alliance Generation(R) and Alliance Generation2(TM) families of PC boards. Under terms of the agreement, Lucent will manufacture and market the device as a standard product, providing world-class applications and engineering support.
"We are pleased to be partnering with Lucent to jointly supply core technologies based on open telecommunications standards," said Bob Schechter, chairman and CEO of Natural MicroSystems. "The interoperability provided by the Ambassador series and H.100 standard is a key element in continuing the migration of telecommunications systems to mass market computing platforms. This helps the entire industry by enabling telecommunication providers to bring products to market sooner and at more affordable prices."
The devices will provide all signals needed for the H.100 bus, the SCbus and existing buses from the global organization for multi-vendor integration protocol (GO-MVIP) including the H-MVIP and MVIP-90 buses. The original MVIP specification was developed in 1990 by Natural MicroSystems, Brooktrout Technology, GammaLink (now part of Dialogic), Mitel Corporation, Promptus Communications, Scott Instruments (now part of Voice Control Systems), and Voice Processing Corporation (also part of Voice Control Systems).
The first device in the Ambassador series will be the T8100. Local interfaces will include sixteen serial inputs and sixteen serial outputs based on the Lucent Concentration Highway Interface (CHI). Two built-in time-slot interchangers will be included. One will provide a local switching domain with up to 1024 programmable connections between time-slots on the local CHI inputs and outputs. The other will support up to 256 programmable connections between any time-slot on the H.100 bus and any time-slot in the local switching domain. On-board clock circuitry, including a digital phase-locked-loop, supports all H.100 clock modes including MVIP and SCbus compatibility clocks. The local CHI interfaces support PCM rates up to 2,048, 4,096 and 8,192 Mega bits per second.
The H.100 bus controller core, as used in the the Ambassador series of interoperable telephony ICs will become available as part of Lucent's Silicon Suite(TM). Silicon Suite is an extensive offering of fully integrated packages of high-level ASIC cores, mixed-signal macrocell libraries, standard products and associated system design tools, software and services enabling reduced design cycles, time-to-market, cost and risk.
Announced product suites include Silicon Suite for Wide Area Networking including T1/E1 macrocells, Integrated Services Digital Network applications, Universal Serial Bus, and Fast Ethernet. Future offerings include Silicon Suite portfolios for a variety of wireless, communications, and networked computing applications.
Samples of the first chip in the Ambassador series are expected to be available within the first quarter of 1998. Volume production is scheduled for the second quarter.
Natural MicroSystems(TM) (NASDAQ: NMSS), based in Framingham, Mass., is the technology leader in open telecommunications, providing hardware and software technologies for developers of high-value telecommunications solutions. The Company's state-of-the-art technology enables a growing international network of OEMs, VARs, systems integrators and service providers to reduce time to market, leverage development resources, and offer truly global communications products.
Natural MicroSystems products are installed in more than 40 countries worldwide. Founded in 1983, Natural MicroSystems developed Watson(R), the first product to utilize digital signal processor (DSP) technology in PC-based telephony products, and has been a leader in the creation of MVIP and H.100, the industry standards for interoperability in PC-based telephony products. More information on the company is available at nmss.com.
Lucent Technologies (LU) designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, business telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Laboratories is the research and development arm of Lucent.
Lucent's Microelectronics Group designs and manufactures integrated circuits, optoelectronic components and power systems for the computer and communications industries. More information about the Microelectronics Group's business is available from its Web site at www.lucent.com/micro.
For additional product information, customers in the U.S. may call the Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group Customer Response Center at (800) 372-2447, Dept. R54. In Canada, call (800) 553-2448, Dept. R54. International customers should fax their request to (610) 712-4106, or write to Lucent Technologies, Room 30L-15P-BA, 555 Union Boulevard, Allentown, Pa. 18103.
Ambassador and Silicon Suite are trademarks of Lucent Technologies. Natural MicroSystems, Open Telecommunications, and Alliance Generation2 are trademarks of Natural MicroSystems Corp. Alliance Generation and Watson are registered trademarks of Natural MicroSystems Corp. MVIP is a trademark of GO-MVIP, Inc.
CONTACT: Lucent Technologies
Tom Topalian
908-508-8673 (office)
908-713-6240 (home)
ttopalian@lucent.com
or
Natural MicroSystems
Chris Ward
(508) 271-1243 (office)
chris_ward@nmss.com
|
