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Gold/Mining/Energy : JDS Fitel -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Praxis who wrote (579)	1/15/1999 3:49:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 815

Optical switches are a key component for a variety of optical networking applications such as configurable add/drop multiplexers for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems, optical cross-connects, and protection switching. The Akzo Nobel Photonics product line includes 1x2, 2x2, 1x4 and 1x8 optical switches, as well as array configurations of 1x2 and 2x2 switches. Is this the switch that keeps everything at the optical layer without having to switch to electrical layer? If so, I'm guessing this is an extremely strategic purchase. Thanks for posting. Also, was the AlliedSignal alliance announced earlier? Pat

To: Praxis who wrote (579)	1/16/1999 12:25:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 815

akzonobel.com jdsfitel.com akzonobel.com Bingo!! Photonics (an example of a corporate development project) Building on its expertise in the design, synthesis, and processing of polymers, Akzo Nobel has developed photonic components for controlling traffic in telecommunication networks. To cope with today's vast information flows, these networks consist of glass fibers carrying light beams between telephone exchanges. Currently the light signals have to be converted into electric signals for switching. However, the processing capacity of electronic switches is lower than the carrying capacity of the glass fiber networks and hence constitutes a bottleneck. Photonic switches directly manipulating the light signals eliminate this bottleneck. Exclusively for this application Akzo Nobel is developing a set of high performance optical polymers with unique properties and high stability under varying conditions. Processing techniques derived from the integrated circuit industry are used to efficiently manufacture so-called optochips from the polymers, which contain the required microstructures for manipulating the light signals. Marketing of the first prototype optical switches under the brand name BeamBoxTM started in 1996. The switches are used by key telecom equipment manufacturers and network operators to bypass severed telephone connections or to reconfigure the network in response to demand fluctuations Photonic components enable network operators to maximize the capacity, flexibility, and reliability of their infrastructure and yet contain costs.