shrini: Nice post! Here are a few other events that occured during that time frame:
1) Alcatel won the DSLAM RFP from BC, "Westell gets initial order for CAP"
2) BT announced a larger trial/"deployment??" starting in 1998.
3) The GTE ILEC will wait until 1Q98 to announce deployments... "I can wait".
I'm still 100% invested in Westell, with Westell's ramp starting in 1998.
Texas Instruments buys Amati, Rockwell teams up with Nortel and Orckit -- TI, Rockwell dial up new partners in DSL deals
By Loring Wirbel
Dallas - Texas Instruments Inc. last week agreed to purchase Amati Communications Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) for $395 million in cash, while Rockwell Semiconductor Systems (Newport Beach, Calif.) announced technology collaborations with both Northern Telecom and Orckit Communications Inc.
The pacts may be only a preview of mergers and cooperative efforts to come from digital subscriber line (DSL) system and chip-set vendors. DSL backers are under the gun to drive collaborative deployment efforts and overcome a proliferation of DSL standards if they are to provide better competition to the emerging cable-modem business. For its part, TI has more to resolve in the Amati acquisition, and Orckit plans additional European alliances.
Since Amati was already in the process of being acquired by Westell Technologies Inc. (Oswego, Ill.; see Oct. 6, page 8) in an earlier stock offer worth $405 million when TI made its offer, the asymmetric digital subscriber line specialist is making a one-time breakup-fee payment to Westell of $14.8 million. In addition, TI is collaborating with Westell on the development of next-generation xDSL equipment based on TMS320 DSPs. But James Collinge, director of remote-access product marketing in TI's networking group, emphasized there is no direct financial investment in Westell by TI.
Amati was one of the early pioneers in ADSL technology, and had collaborated with several semiconductor partners, including Motorola Inc., NEC Electronics Inc. and TI. Collinge said that some consideration within TI had been given to acquiring the Amati algorithmic and chip-level talent since a chip-design pact was signed a year ago, but a serious offer was only in the works for the last month.
No surprise
Rob Faw, chief executive of Westell, said the company had been notified by Amati of a competing bid about two weeks ago, though "even then, TI's move was not a surprise to us." Westell briefly considered a counter-bid before electing to discuss possible terms with TI. Since Westell gained rights to manufacture the Allegro ADSL modem and certain non-DSL products of Amati, Faw said, "We really gained the best possible advantage from this deal, and the market seems to have responded favorably."
Westell will collaborate with TI on several xDSL system designs, but the company will continue to work with Globespan Technology Inc. on ADSL systems based on carrierless-amplitude/phase-modulation codes, as well as with other partners on different DSL products.
The Amati technical and marketing team, numbering more than 100, will remain in San Jose, and TI will gain the expertise of such ADSL pioneers as John Cioffi and Krista Jacobsen. But TI has made clear that it acquired Amati to gain chip-level talents, and that the Amati team will report directly to TI's semiconductor group. Collinge hinted that "the story is not over" regarding system-level uses of the Amati technology, and that TI could sell or license rights to system designs outside the rights Westell has picked up. TI also plans to continue licensing ADSL algorithms to partners Amati already has, as well as new partners.
Rockwell, meanwhile, used the Comdex/Fall setting to announce two critical deals in DSL. Northern Telecom Inc. (Research Triangle Park, N.C.) will work with Rockwell to ensure that the Consumer DSL technology Rockwell recently proposed will work with Nortel's "1-Meg Modem" infrastructure. Steve Edwards, assistant vice president for data-access solutions at Nortel, said it was critical for a DSP-based semiconductor vendor to work with a network-infrastructure leader to drive mid-speed DSL technologies. New alternatives to ADSL that alleviate the need for a POTS splitter need to be touted by network providers as well as by the chip-set suppliers, he said.
ADSL alternatives
Nortel's 1-Meg Modem was based on a consumer digital-modem technology very similar to CDSL. The two companies will work jointly through the ANSI G.Lite working group on low-cost alternatives to ADSL, and will plan product and service rollouts for common products by the second quarter of next year.
For a two-pair version of high-bit-rate DSL, or HDSL-2, Rockwell has agreed to work in conjunction with Orckit, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based company that has been a leader in several xDSL technologies. Dan Arazi, Orckit executive vice president, said that his company had worked for many years with Brooktree Corp. (San Diego), which was acquired by Rockwell, on HDSL chip sets. When Rockwell management decided to get behind the emerging HDSL-2 effort, Arazi said, "it was natural that we would go to work with our old partners again."
Orckit will follow the lead of the HDSL-2 Alliance (formed by Rockwell, PairGain Technologies and ADC Telecommunications) in promoting the Overlapped PAM Transmission with Interlocking Spectra or Optis code. Orckit will continue to market standard HDSL equipment, but Arazi observed "HDSL-2 can do virtually anything HDSL can do, but with a smaller footprint, lower power dissipation, simpler system implementation and dramatically lower costs."
Arazi said that Orckit is not working with Rockwell on the CDSL initiative, but is interested in pursuing the technology on its own. Orckit is working with Harris Semiconductor on VDSL, and with Fujitsu Microelectronics on ADSL-3.
The pacts are a preview of mergers and cooperative efforts to come for digital-subscriber-line vendors.
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