Network gear component makers are producing new chips and switch fabric technologies that could make products such as IP telephones and Gigabit LAN switches faster and less expensive.
Texas Instruments says its new product combines multiple IP telephony functions once performed on multiple chips into one piece of silicon. This could drive the price of voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones lower than $100, the company says. Switch component maker Ample Communications also is developing a chipset for LAN switches that the company says could more efficiently manage total switching capacity for high-density copper Gigabit Ethernet ports.
Texas Instruments’ TNETV1050 processor will let IP phone makers such as Avaya, Cisco and Nortel produce IP phones with more features, the company says.
The multifunction processor’s features include a 16-bit audio codec, graphics controllers for an LCD display, and digital signal processors. Vendors of IP phones also can choose between embedded protocol stacks on the processor, with support for the H.323 VoIP call control protocol or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Texas Instruments says it currently ships 80% H.323 and 20% SIP.
The chip also includes Ethernet media access control support for a three-port switch and USB drivers for supporting peripheral devices attached to an IP phone, such as PDAs and headset peripherals. The company says IP phone makers will launch products based on the TNETV1050 chip in the fall, but declined to say which vendors.
Meanwhile, Ample’s Harrier switch fabric product could make the utilization of switch bandwidth more efficient as more Gigabit Ethernet desktops start to hook into corporate LANs. Ample’s silicon aggregates 24 10/100/1000M bit/sec connections into a single chip on a LAN switch card or in a fixed-configuration box. The company says its chip can manage the switching capacity among varying Ethernet speeds, so all ports can run from 10M to 1000M bit/sec, while not blocking switch connections with unnecessary bandwidth. The firm says switch makers could have products using the technology by year-end.
