Intel Announces PCI Card VoIP Adapter

Intel introduced a PCI card Phone Adapter positioned as a complete Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) solution, including hardware, software and services.



The Intel 600SM PCI Phone Adapter allows PC OEMs and system integrators to deliver a VoIP solution for small businesses and residential subscribers. Intel said the ATA is compatible with VoIP services from engin (Australia), Packet8, Skype, and yak.

http://www.intel.com

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Motorola Shows Wireless Voice-Over-IP Gateway for ADSL2/2+

Motorola introduced a new wireless gateway that combines voice, data, and network functionality for ADSL2/2+ users.
The Motorola Home Hub (HH) 1620 DSL VoIP Wireless Gateway includes an 802.11b/g wireless access point, a four-port router, a USB 2.0 Host Connection, a USB 1.1 slave connection, as well as a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based VoIP adapter.



Additional features include:

• an 802.11 b/g wireless access point and a four-port wired router as well as a USB 2.0 host connection and a USB 1.1 slave connection.
  
  
• Voice-over-Data Prioritization
  
  
• CLASS Phone Features - Caller ID, call waiting, three-way calling, and call forwarding.
  
  
• Multiple Phone Line Support- Enables delivery of up to two lines of
  full-featured phone service.
  
  
• 802.11i security and pre-authentication, IPSEC/PPTP/L2TP NAT tunneling (for VPN pass-through), and Secure Mobile Pairing with push-button set-up.
  
  
• Redundant Connectivity - Equipped with PSTN fail-over Protection Feature, in the event of ADSL signal loss or power outage.
  
  
• Remote Management - Supports TR-069 extensions for remote provisioning, management and diagnosis; TR-104 (VoIP provisioning), and TR-098 (QoS provisioning).
  
  
• Sufficient bandwidth via ADSL2/2+, throughput for video and support for multiple QoS mechanisms, such as VLAN tagging and DiffServ

http://www.motorola.com

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Nortel Announces Second Generation Softswitch for Small Carriers

Nortel introduced its second generation VoIP softswitch for small and medium-sized wireline service providers.



The Nortel Communication Server 1500 (CS 1500) is positioned as an evolution path for DMS-10 and DMS-100 customers.



The CS 1500 core control, gateways and operations, administration and maintenance interfaces are all housed in a single chassis. Service providers can deploy the switch for end-office (Class 5) and Access Tandem (Class 4) applications to replace an existing switch or as an addition to the network. The platform provides range of legacy network interfaces and regulatory requirements, including E-911 and CALEA.



The CS 1500 is scheduled for field trials starting fourth quarter 2006 and general availability in selected global markets during the first quarter of 2007.

http://www.nortel.com

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Nortel Unveils Provider Backbone Transport Ethernet

Nortel unveiled its Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) technology, focused on making Ethernet more capable for service provider deployments where deterministic service delivery with guaranteed quality of service and carrier-grade reliability is required.



Nortel describes PBT as a reliable, simple, scalable and cost-effective technology enabling Ethernet-based metro networks to work seamlessly with service providers' existing MPLS core networks.



The technology promises massive scalability (up to millions of service instances per metro) to Ethernet, while supporting Ethernet operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) standards to dramatically enhance the manageability of Ethernet.





Nortel has been an active player in the standardization of Provider Backbone Bridging (IEEE 802.1ah or Mac-in-Mac).



PBT is now available on Nortel's Metro Ethernet Routing Switch (MERS) 8600, with development underway to integrate PBT into the Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500 and other Ethernet-ready platforms.



An early implementation of PBB has been available on Nortel's Metro Ethernet portfolio for several years, and a fully standardized version will be delivered later this year as the standard is ratified.



Key features of PBT include:

• Ethernet tunneling w/full MPLS interoperability



• Service and transport layer independence -- the services inside the tunnel could be Ethernet, IP, MPLS pseudo-wires or VPLS



• Traffic engineering & resiliency



• Secure, deterministic delivery



• Service scalability



• Operational simplicity

Nortel also announced the availability of integrated, standards-compliant resilient packet ring (RPR) technology into its flagship OME 6500 optical platform. RPR capabilities on the OME 6500 support multiple Ethernet rings of up to 10Gbps and the ability to provision up to eight classes of service on a per customer and per application basis. This helps ensure real-time traffic like video is prioritized, and enables service providers to offer differentiated service level agreements to their business services customers.



In addition, Nortel has developed several new Ethernet enhancements that improve the scalability and performance of its Metro Ethernet portfolio. This includes a new 10 GE Ultra card on the Nortel Optical Metro 5200 that enables the transport of 10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 175km without the need for regeneration or dispersion compensation, a 59% improvement over previous capabilities.

http://www.nortel.com

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Kasenna's ViewNow VOD Programming Provider Cites Gains

Kasenna's ViewNow subsidiary announced that its selection of major studio content has been selected by seven more VOD providers. ViewNow now serves more than 25 affiliates in North America, and expects this total to nearly double by the end of 2006. New ViewNow affiliates include Arkwest (Arkansas), Comspan Bandon (Oregon), City of Burlington (Vermont), KPU Telecommunications (Alaska), Pineland Telephone (Georgia), Valley Telecom (Arizona), and Wood County Telephone (Wisconsin).



ViewNow aggregates and licenses an extensive lineup of on-demand programming for VOD and IPTV carriers. The company has IPTV/DSL and HFC distribution rights from major motion picture studios as well as other VOD content providers. The ViewNow VOD offering includes new release films, library films, SVOD, and FVOD programming. In addition to content licensing and aggregation, ViewNow simplifies the content acquisition and promotion process by providing encoding, transport, and marketing services to its customers.

http://www.viewnow.tvhttp://www.kasenna.com

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Agere Positions "TrueONE" for Converged Services

Agere Systems introduced its "TrueONE" architected to enable service providers to offer more levels of differentiated, high-margin, billable services at various pricing tiers by leveraging common silicon capabilities in devices throughout their networks.



Agere said its TrueONE capabilities would enable service providers to improve and manage network operations and service delivery by meeting stringent latency (delay) requirements of VoIP and video on demand services; reduce capital and operating expenses; increase the average revenue generated per user (ARPU); and improve customer satisfaction and retention with higher-quality service performance and with new service offerings.



Agere's PayloadPlus network processors, which combine IP processing and traffic management, are the "brains" of the TrueONE communications platforms.



While network processors form the "brains" of TrueONE, Gigabit Ethernet switching chip solutions represent the "heart" of these solutions. Agere said its devices are designed for switching triple play services and do not drop packets even at large "jumbo" sizes. The chips also facilitate in-home high definition TV delivery over Ethernet technology.



Agere's services-enabling TrueONE offerings also showcase the company's digital signal processor (DSP) system chips. These solutions enable delivery of highly delay-sensitive video and voice traffic with the appropriate level of quality.



Agere also announced two major design wins:



Ericsson has selected Agere's APP300 (Agere's Advanced PayloadPlus series network processor product offerings). Agere's APP300, released early last year, features more than 2 Gbps of performance, with classification capabilities and high-performance traffic management QoS.



NEC has selected the Agere Systems APP300 (Advanced PayloadPlus) series network processor-based platform offerings for use in NEC's third-generation (3G) wireless network equipment. Specifically, NEC will use Agere's APP300, as well as associated software, reference designs and development platforms, in 3G infrastructure equipment called 3G Node B. Last year, Agere announced this customer's selection of the same Agere technologies for use in 3G Radio Network Controller infrastructure equipment.

http://www.agere.com

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Competitors Lobby FCC to Deny AT&T-BellSouth Merger

A group of competitive telecommunications companies have filed comments urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny the merger of AT&T and BellSouth, citing the irreparable harms to competition and the public interest. The companies that filed the comments are Cbeyond Communications, Grande Communications, NuVox Communications, Supra Telecom, Talk America, XO Communications and Xspedius Communications.



The group outlined three overall areas where they believe the merger would cause harm:

• Eliminating Existing and Future Competition between RBOCs. As adjacent RBOCs, AT&T and BellSouth are the most significant current and potential competitors to one another in the consumer and business telecom services markets. Both companies have significant network assets in each other's regions.
  
  
• Undermining the Implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The AT&T and BellSouth merger will undermine the ability of regulators and competitors to implement the pro-competitive, deregulatory framework for local telecommunications that was adopted by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
  
  
• Increased Incentive to Discriminate Against Competitive Providers. By extending its monopoly control over local network facilities in BellSouth's territory, AT&T will have an increased incentive and ability to discriminate against competing service providers in retail markets that depend on access to AT&T's local network facilities in order to provide service.

"We have been down this road before of failed promises following previous Bell to Bell mergers, like those of SBC and Ameritech," said Heather Gold, senior vice president of government relations at XO Communications. "The conditions on this merger must have strong enforcement mechanisms with severe penalties if they are not followed. The function of regulatory agencies is to enforce its policies, not to rubber stamp industry actions which thwart those policies."

If the merger is to be approved, then the group is asking that several conditions be imposed, including:

• Ensure continued access to existing AT&T/BellSouth "section 251" unbundled network elements at rates capped at current levels;



• Require AT&T/BellSouth to file with states just and reasonable rates for "section 271" network elements;



• Ensure continued access to AT&T/BellSouth special access services at rates capped at current levels and on a non-discriminatory basis and with a "fresh look" period to permit customers to change providers without incurring penalties;



• Continue to offer AT&T's wholesale private line services at current rates in BellSouth territory;



• Provide access to copper loops decommissioned by AT&T/BellSouth;



• Eliminate eligibility criteria on EEL UNEs; and



• Divestiture of AT&T's metropolitan network assets in BellSouth territory and BellSouth's wireless assets, including licenses in the 2.5 GHz range.

http://www.fcc.gov

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Nortel Reports Q1 Revenue of $2.38 Billion

Nortel Networks reported revenue of $2.38 billion for the first quarter of 2006 compared to $2.39 billion for the first quarter of 2005 and $3.0 billion for the fourth quarter of 2005. Nortel reported a net loss in the first quarter of 2006 of $167 million, or ($0.04) per common share on a diluted basis, compared to a net loss of $104 million, or ($0.02) per common share on a diluted basis, in the first quarter of 2005 and a net loss of $2,302 million, or ($0.53) per common share on a diluted basis, in the fourth quarter of 2005.



Mobility and Converged Core Networks revenues were $1.43 billion, a decrease of 4 percent compared with the year-ago quarter and a decrease of 23 percent sequentially. Enterprise Solutions and Packet Networks revenues were $871 million, a decrease of 1 percent compared with the year-ago quarter and a decrease of 15 percent sequentially. Revenues in both segments were impacted by the timing of certain contracts as both deferred revenues and backlog increased at quarter end by $140 million and $275 million, respectively.



"I am pleased to be current in our financial reporting," said Mike Zafirovski, president and chief executive officer, Nortel. "While our results reflect a challenging first quarter, we continue to expect good revenue and operating margin momentum commencing in the second quarter, in line with our previously communicated full year plan. We remain focused on our business transformation initiatives, integrity renewal and short term growth opportunities, while concurrently building the long-term foundation for the new Nortel."http://www.nortel.com

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Global Crossing Deploys Juniper's T-Series

Global Crossing is using Juniper Networks' T-series core routing platforms as part of its next generation worldwide network backbone. Global Crossing has expanded its core network by more than quadrupling the capacity of its existing backbone infrastructure to meet growing traffic demands.



Global Crossing noted that in the first quarter of 2006, it recorded a 280 percent year-over-year growth in IP VPN traffic, driven by an increasing number of customers using a converged IP solution for multiple applications, including VoIP, IP video and data.

http://www.globalcrossing.com

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Sonus and Atreus Launch Self-Service Consumer VoIP Portal Solution

Sonus Networks and Atreus Systems will jointly deliver a Self-care Access Portal as part of the Sonus Certified Voice over Broadband (VoBB) solution. The Self-care Access Portal empowers service providers to automate the configuration and management of VoIP features, giving end users more flexibility, simplicity, and increased service personalization. This includes:

• an intuitive web-based self-care portal for Consumer VoIP;
  
• simplified user-driven voice feature configuration;
  
• detailed logs of incoming, outgoing and missed calls;
  
• simplified voicemail download and playback, and
  
• entry-level solution that easily migrates to the full self-provisioning solution for Business VoIP, Wholesale VoIP and IMS-based offerings.

http://www.atreus-systems.comhttp://www.sonusnet.com/

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Motorola Debuts 2.4GHz/4.9GHz Dual-Band Wi-Fi Card

Motorola launched a 2.4GHz and 4.9GHz dual-band Wi-Fi card for municipal-wide and ad hoc wireless connectivity. The standards-based WDE (Wireless Device Enabler) card, which is designed for first responders, provides Wi-Fi connectivity on both the unlicensed 802.11b/g 2.4GHz frequency and the licensed 4.9GHz public safety frequency. http://www.motorola.com

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Kasenna Signs Ericsson as Global OEM Partner

Ericsson will license Kasenna's PortalTV suite (including Kasenna LivingRoom and MediaBase XMP) for integration with Ericsson's broadband access products.

The combined solution will provide an integrated network and IPTV infrastructure carriers need to deliver advanced TV services such as video-on- demand, network PVR, StartOver TV, and customizable electronic programming guides (EPGs).

http://www.kasenna.com

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Global Crossing's VoIP Integrity Service Offers Real- time Visibility and Reporting

Global Crossing launched an enterprise VoIP Integrity Service, a real-time visibility and reporting service, as the latest addition to its portfolio of Application Performance Management (APM) services.



Global Crossing VoIP Integrity Service, which is built with the Visual UpTime Select VoIP module from Fluke Networks, provides key performance reporting and indicators, including per-call Mean Opinion Score (MOS) metrics, in addition to the standard features of Global Crossing Network Integrity and Global Crossing Application Integrity Services.



"Converged IP networks require high levels of transparency, end-to-end monitoring and end-to-end management to achieve consistent reliability and quality for real-time applications," said Anthony Christie, Global Crossing's chief marketing officer. "By gaining such a high degree of visibility into and control over their VoIP network performance, enterprise network managers can maximize the productivity of their organization and achieve lower total- cost-of-ownership efficiencies."http://www.globalcrossing.com

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Caspian and ETRI Partner on IPv4-to-IPv6

Caspian announ
ced the second phase of its joint technology development partnership with Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) to deliver new IPv6 services. Caspian and ETRI announced Phase I of their joint technology agreement in February 2005 to develop multimedia quality of service (QoS) solutions for South Korea's Broadband convergence Network (BcN) initiative.



Phase II of the joint development agreement between Caspian and ETRI will focus on new IPv6 services that are part of a comprehensive IPv4-to-IPv6 migration strategy. The single gateway solution will provide tunneling of IPv6 traffic over existing IPv4 networks, resulting in one of the world's first QoS implementations of IPv6. The transition solution will permit IPv4 traffic to be tunneled over IPv6 backbones to assure backward compatibility. The strategy is designed to provide a cost-effective transition solution that protects significant investments in IPv4 network infrastructure.



Through its Phase I collaboration with ETRI, Caspian has successfully deployed its Media Controllers in South Korean's Electronic Government (e-Gov) network with Korea Telecom and SK Telecom. The e-Gov networks are one of many BcN initiatives that represent an ambitious countrywide network infrastructure to deliver dedicated bandwidth in support of integrated multimedia services including VoIP, streaming audio and video, and real-time health and welfare response services to 20 million Korean subscribers. Caspian's Media Controllers are being used today to enforce IP traffic management policies and guarantee QoS for MPLS services across the e-Gov network as part of the BcN.



The joint technology efforts between Caspian and ETRI integrate Caspian's flow-state QoS technology with ETRI's expertise in MPLS and IPv6. By combining these technologies, service providers can implement deterministic multimedia networks to reliably deliver voice, video and data services.

http://www.caspian.comhttp://www.etri.re.kr

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Siemens Selects Motorola as Preferred ATCA Supplier

Siemens has selected Motorola's Embedded Communications Computing business as a preferred supplier of AdvancedTCA based communications servers for Siemens' next generation telecom architecture.



"Siemens is committed to apply an open standards-based common platform with AdvancedTCA as a main technology in both its mobile networks and fixed networks portfolio," said Dr. Dieter Carl, Vice President platform strategy of Siemens Communications.

http://www.motorola.com/computing

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Metro Ethernet Forum Announces QoS Certifications

The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) announced the first group of systems and services to comply with MEF 14 - Abstract Test Suite for Traffic Management. This MEF Certification ensures conformance to the MEF Quality of Service attributes - a requirement of SLAs (Service Level Agreements) supporting simultaneous real-time and data intensive business applications.



MEF 14, which is seen as a major step towards making Ethernet carrier-class, provides clear specifications-based guidelines for the formulation of SLAs. MEF 14 complements MEF 9 and covers two sets of MEF Service Attributes, namely "Service Performance" and "Bandwidth Profiles". The first set comprises three Service Performance attributes relating to the Ethernet Virtual Circuits (EVC): Frame delay, Frame delay variation and frame loss ratio. The second set, relating to the User Network Interface (UNI) and following the familiar example of Frame Relay, include four Bandwidth Profile attributes: CIR (Committed Information Rate), CBS (Committed Burst Size), EIR (Excess Information Rate), EBS (Excess Burst Size). Together MEF 9 and MEF 14 cover the complete set of Carrier Ethernet Service Attributes defined in the core definitional technical document MEF 10.

The first fourteen companies to be presented with certification for their respective systems today were: Actelis Networks, ADVA Optical Networking, Alcatel, Atrica, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, Foundry Networks, Fujitsu Communications, Hatteras Networks, Lucent Technologies, MRV, Siemens, Tellabs, T-pack and WorldWide Packets.

http://www.MetroEthernetForum.org

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NEC to License and Resell Riverbed's WAN Optimizers

NEC will license and resell the Riverbed Technology's wide-area data services (WDS), the Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS), under an OEM agreement. NEC will combine RiOS with its server product line and sell the offering under its new "WanBooster" product family name.



WanBooster based on RiOS is a network appliance deployed in remote offices and in corporate data centers. The company said its RiOS accelerates enterprise applications typically by five to 50 times and in some cases up to 100 times between enterprise datacenters and remote offices.

http://www.riverbed.com

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Entropic Releases Latest Coaxial Processor

Entropic Communications introduced a new version of its c.LINK Coaxial Network Processor for home networking of digital entertainment.



The new processor, called the EN2210, features increased performance, ease of use, lower power consumption and reduced implementation cost.



Entropic's solution uses existing coax cabling, found in more than 90 percent of all households in the U.S., for distribution of multiple high definition and standard definition video, digital voice and broadband data.



Entropic said its latest chipset can sustain performance of 270 Mbps. It operates at RF frequencies between 850 to 1500 MHz, allowing coexistence with the frequencies used by wired delivery services. The EN2210 carries key protocols such as IEEE 1394 and Ethernet, the latter making for an easy transition to IP television. c.LINK is essentially IP over coax.



It also has embedded all of the required yet still evolving digital rights management (DRM) formats and protocols.



Entropic's c.LINK is the core technology behind the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA-TM) MAC/PHY 1.0 specification. http://www.entropic.com

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Emerson Shows MicroTCA and AdvancedTCA Based Media Processing

Emerson Network Power's new Embedded Computing business, formerly Artesyn Communication Products, is demonstrating IMS and signaling using its new AdvancedTCA blades, AdvancedMC modules, and MicroTCA systems. Specifically, Emerson will demonstrate video streaming and videoconferencing applications on its new KAT4000 AdvancedTCA blade and MicroTCA development system. Emerson will also demonstrate new platform and protocol management software.



"AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC, and MicroTCA are quickly becoming the open architecture platforms of choice among network equipment providers who want to outsource their platform design to contain cost and speed time to market," said Todd Wynia, vice president of product management for Emerson's new Embedded Computing business.



The ATCA shelf will feature Emerson's KAT4000, a configurable ATCA blade with expansion sites for up to four AdvancedMC modules. KAT4000 blades equipped with DSP media processing modules from partner Surf Communications will be used to perform the IMS video streaming and videoconferencing-over-IP applications. A separate demonstration will show how Emerson's new middleware can be used to provide shelf management and protocol configuration.



Emerson will perform a pair of demos using its new 12-slot MicroTCA development system, which is equipped with a MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH) module, power supply, Fat Pipe switch module, application/protocol processing, and platform management software. In the first demo, KosaiPM AdvancedMC modules plugged directly into the MicroTCA chassis will perform application hosting. Surf modules will perform IMS video streaming and videoconferencing. In the second demo, a KosaiPM module running Linux from a hard drive will perform videoconferencing.



MicroTCA is a proposed PICMG specification for small form factor, field-replaceable telecom chassis. It will provide scaleable aggregate bandwidth up to 612 Gbps (per MCH), support star, dual-star, and full-mesh topologies, employ a serial packet transport with up to 12.5 Gbps of bandwidth per channel, and provide a redundant Intelligent Peripheral Management Interface.

http://www.emersonnetworkpower.com

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PT Debuts 10 Gbps AdvancedTCA Platform

Performance Technologies (PT) introduced an AdvancedTCA (ATCA) application-ready platform with "AdvancedMC" (AMC) functionality and 10Gb Ethernet fabric. The new offering includes a next-generation ATCA 10Gb Ethernet switch, two AMC compute modules and a new ATCA 10Gb AMC carrier blade.



Performance Technologies' complete line of ATCA application-ready platforms include 1Gb/10Gb Ethernet or 10/100/1000 Ethernet switches, shelf management, high-performance compute elements, and accommodate Linux or Solaris operating system software and HA middleware.



"Today's telecom equipment manufacturers need to look beyond developing voice applications, rather, they need to develop "triple-play" applications that address voice, audio and video," said John Peters, CTO and senior vice president of platform engineering for Performance Technologies.



New products include:

• The ARP5210 is a 12U application-ready platform configuration with an aggregate backplane bandwidth of 0.45 Terabits (450 Gbps). It features redundant 10Gb Ethernet base/fabric switches, comprehensive shelf management, and compute elements enabled with Linux operating system software and high availability middleware.



• The ATC6640 is a base/fabric 10Gb Ethernet switch that fully utilizes all the advanced capabilities of the PICMG 3.0/3.1 specifications. It features two completely independent switching cores, each with its own management processor, and an aggregate bandwidth of 0.45 Terabit (450Gbs) versus approximately 50Gbs in PICMG 2.16. The dual switches each support IPv4/IPv6 switching/routing and can sustain non-blocking, full wire-speed data rates.



• The ATC8010 is one of the first ATCA AMC carriers that fully exploits the 10Gb capabilities of PICMG 3.1. It supports four standard, single-width AMC modules and can either aggregate or isolate the dual connections. This advanced carrier then aggregates the collective bandwidth from all AMC bays up to redundant 10Gb ATCA interconnects. The carrier also has provisions for intra-bay connectivity for both SATA and PCI-Express. It is an ideal compliment to the ATC6640 in applications that demand a distributed, hierarchical, high-performance ATCA/AMC architecture.



• The AMC111, the first of the two AMC modules, is a 64-bit single board compute module that features an AMD Turion single core 2.0 GHz processor and is designed for high-performance embedded applications. This processor is built upon an architecture that offers advanced processing speed while addressing power and heat constraints for an AMC form factor.



• The AMC131 has many of the same features as the AMC111, with a 32-bit processor with a 64-bit wide memory bus. Also designed for high-performance embedded applications, the AMC131 features the Freescale MPC8641D dual core 1.0 GHz processor and provides a highly scalable PowerPC architecture that delivers next-generation performance and a flexible upgrade path from 32- to 64-bit computing.



• Designed to run Linux, Solaris and Windows applications, both the AMC111 and AMC131 are ideal processors for high-end packet processing or multi-threaded software environments found in IMS, wireless, softswitch, defense or any other compute-intensive application. Both modules have a wide range of additional features (including Micro-SD, USB2.0, ECC-protected DDR SODIMM and 1Gb in front panel) and support for both the AMC.1 (PCI-Express) and AMC.2 (Ethernet) at card edge. Either can be installed on the ATC8010 or ATC6640 and be used either as a packet or adjunct processor.

http://www.pt.com

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