Tuesday, August 14, 2007

TI Acquires Integrated Circuit Designs for Low-Power RF

Texas Instruments (TI) has acquired Integrated Circuit Designs (ICD), a privately-held company that specializes in the design of radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs), for an undisclosed sum.



The deal combines ICD's design expertise with TI's extensive high-performance analog and low-power microcontroller product portfolio. TI described the acquisition as a strategic move to strengthen its low-power RF portfolio. The deal follows the acquisition of Chipcon, a leading provider of short-range, low-power RF transceivers for ZigBee-compliant and proprietary-based wireless systems.



ICD is based in Ellicott City, Maryland, and has 16 employees. http://www.ti.com

SPACEWAY 3 Satellite Features On-Board Routing/Switching for BB Services

Hughes Network Systems' next generation SPACEWAY 3 satellite was successfully launched and placed into geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 ECA rocket.



The Ka-band SPACEWAY 3 satellite is the world's first commercial satellite featuring an on-board traffic switching and routing capability. This ability to switch and route IP packets on board, enabling single-hop communications between any two satellite terminals and eliminating the need for the traffic to be routed through a central hub earth station.



Hughes said that combined with a 10 Gbps overall capacity, fast packet switching, and dynamic beam forming, its SPACEWAY 3 satellite will usher in a new world of bandwidth-on-demand satellite services with true site-to-site, single-hop networking of high-performance ground terminals.

As a full IP-based system, SPACEWAY supports a large variety of web, data, voice, and video services for both unicast and multicast applications in a standards-compliant fashion. SPACEWAY terminals also implement custom enhancement proxies for application acceleration using TCP and HTTP protocols.



SPACEWAY 3 was built by Boeing and is based on the company's 702 satellite platform.

http://www.hughes.com

http://www.arianespace.com
  • Hughes has built a scalable Network Operations and Control Center (NOCC), installed at its Germantown Maryland headquarters, which anchors control functions for network addressing, registration, network security, admission control and multicasting. The NOCC also provides satellite payload management, capacity planning, terminal management, customer care and network management functions. The SPACEWAY architecture can scale up to two million terminals per satellite and will provide coverage with multiple spot beams across the U.S. including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, as well as in selected areas in Canada, Mexico, and major cities in South America.


  • The SPACEWAY 3 satellite will operate in the globally assigned Ka-band spectrum at 95 degrees West Longitude and will support a range of new high-speed communications services for IP data and multimedia applications to North American enterprise, consumer, and government customers.


  • In March 2007, Arianespace was selected to launch the SPACEWAY 3 communications satellite for Hughes from the Guiana Space Center in August 2007. The launch contract was originally awarded to Sea Launch. However, on January 30, 2007, Sea Launch suffered a failed launch of the NSS-8 spacecraft from its Odyssey Platform in the equatorial Pacific. The Odyssey Launch Platform sustained damage from the event.

SIRIUS' Stiletto 2 Player Adds WiFi to Satellite Radio

SIRIUS Satellite Radio released its Stiletto 2 portable radio, featuring WiFi and the ability to store up to 100 hours of live SIRIUS sports, talk and commercial free music programming. The compact Stiletto 2 is a 4.3 oz portable radio which is capable of receiving live SIRIUS broadcasts via both satellite and WiFi signals. Internal flash memory is used to store SIRIUS content as well as MP3/WMA files for non-live playback.
The WiFi capability permits access to standard SIRIUS Internet Radio (SIR) or, for an additional subscription charge, SIRIUS Internet Radio's premium audio quality offering.



Stiletto 2, with a MSRP of $349.99, will include the radio, a single user-replaceable battery operating for 4 hours (live satellite), 10 hours (WiFi), and 20 hours (Non-live).

http://www.sirius.com

Ditech Posts Revenue of $14 Million, Down 35% YoY

Ditech Networks reported quarterly revenue of $14.0 million, a decrease of $7.6 million, or 35%, from revenues of $21.6 million in the same quarter of the prior fiscal year and a decrease of $5.2 million, or 27%, from revenues of $19.2 million in the preceding quarter. GAAP net loss for the quarter was $1.0 million, a decrease compared to the GAAP net income of $1.5 million in the same quarter of the prior fiscal year and a decrease compared to the GAAP net income of $0.7 million in the preceding quarter.



"We're disappointed in the results of the current period, and we've embarked on a number of changes," said Ed Harper, Ditech's Chairman of the Board and Interim CEO. "First, we will be looking to make any changes necessary to focus the company on closing its current opportunities. We'll also be focused on reducing non-essential spending while maintaining the critical mass and expertise to grow the business. Finally, we are moving ahead diligently in our search for a new CEO to lead the company forward on a long- term basis."http://www.ditechnetworks.com/

Ditech Appoints Chairman Edwin Harper as Interim CEO

Ditech Networks, a supplier of voice processing systems for communications networks, named Edwin L. Harper as interim CEO, replacing Tim Montgomery, who announced his retirement plans in May 2007. Harper already serves as Ditech Networks' Chairman of the Board.
Harper has also previously served as President and CEO of several companies, including Colorado Memory Systems, a computer storage company. http://www.ditechnetworks.com

Spirent to Resell EdenTree Lab Automation Tools

Spirent Communications resell EdenTree Technologies' lab automation solutions to network equipment manufacturers, service provider and enterprise customers worldwide. The partnership matches a test tool architecture with a software-controlled lab switching infrastructure solution and an intuitive GUI for managing and scheduling topologies.

EdenTree Lab Manager is a software platform for managing, scheduling, configuring, and tracking network lab resources. It provides a GUI and API for managing an automated physical layer and power switching infrastructure to which test equipment and devices under test are connected. The result is a software-controlled lab environment with a drag-and-drop user interface that allows test, QA, customer support, and development engineers to easily and remotely design, schedule and automate test configurations.

http://www.spirentcom.com

http://www.edentreetech.com

Hopi Telecom Selects Occam for Network Overhaul

Hopi Telecommunications (HTI), a new telco based in Arizona that is wholly-owned by the Hopi Tribe, has chosen Occam Networks' Broadband Loop Carrier (BLC) equipment to overhaul their network. Occam blades HTI will deploy include the BLC 6150-01 and BLC 6151-01 Lifeline POTS blades, BLC 6246 and BLC 6252-02 ADSL2Plus with Lifeline POTS blades, and the BLC Emergency Standalone (ESA) blade.

http://www.occamnetworks.com

Dell'Oro Releases Edge Router Market Share Numbers

Dell'Oro Group released a report highlighting the shifts in market share rankings for the worldwide edge router market. According to the report, Cisco maintained the number one ranking for the edge router market, while Alcatel-Lucent moved past Juniper into the number two position, and Huawei slipped past Redback to claim the number four spot.



Worldwide Service Provider Edge Router Market Leaders (Revenue)



Vendor 2Q07 Rank Y/Y Growth


Cisco 1 30%


Alcatel-Lucent 2 85%


Juniper 3 23%


Huawei 4 95%


Redback 5 -3%

http://www.DellOro.com

Ixia Announces Stock Repurchase Program

Ixia's Board of Directors approved a stock repurchase program that authorizes the company to repurchase up to $50 million of the Company's common stock.

http://www.ixiacom.com

LCC Wins $11 Million Contracts for Advanced Services in WiMAX and EV-DO

LCC International, which provides network engineering and advanced consulting services, announced $11 million in contracts for WiMAX and EV-DO advanced network services from large North American wireless operators. LCC will provide WiMAX services and solutions that include technology evaluations, in-lab testing, as well as design and continuous wave testing. LCC will also provide its technical and engineering expertise to deliver EV-DO Optimization services.



LCC also said it is seeing an increase in demand for fixed network engineering and spectrum management services.
http://www.lcc.com


Monday, August 13, 2007

Luxtera Introduces 40 Gbps CMOS Photonics Device for Infiniband

Luxtera, a start-up based in Carlsbad, California, introduced its 40 Gigabit optical active cable (OAC) for High Performance Computing InfiniBand and 40G proprietary rack to rack interconnect applications. The new "Blazar" CMOS Photonics product, which combines the benefits of optical modules and copper cables, connects to a system via a QSFP MSA-compliant connector cage. The electrical interface is SFP+ compliant which enables it to support data rates of one to 10.5 gigabits per transport lane for a total throughput of up to 42 gigabits per second. Blazar utilizes single mode fiber, which is lower cost and higher performance than multimode fiber, further reducing interconnect costs while extending reach to 300 meters without the need for additional electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) electronics traditionally associated with VCSEL based optical modules.



The product supports Quad Data Rate (QDR) and an extended reach of up to 300 meters. Luxtera said this enables InfiniBand to become a ubiquitous datacenter interconnect for a wide range of applications that demand higher capacity and performance.



Luxtera plans to offer its Blazar OAC in multiple cable lengths from one to 300 meters. Luxtera will begin sampling Blazar in Q4 2007, with production quantities available in 2008.

http://www.luxtera.com

Warburg Pincus Invests $245 million in Integra Telecom, a Western CLEC

Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm, will invest at least $245 million in Integra Telecom, which provides voice, data and Internet communications to business and carrier customers in eight Western U.S. states, Integra Telecom will continue to operate as a privately held company and will not raise any primary equity in this transaction.



Integra Telecom, which operates in Arizona, California, Idaho, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Washington, owns eight fiber metropolitan access networks, a tier-one Internet and data network and a 4,700-mile high-speed long-haul network. Primary equity investors in the company currently include Banc of America Capital Investors, Boston Ventures and Nautic Equity Partners.



The Warburg Pincus equity transaction is separate from, and not required to complete its planned acquisition of Eschelon Telecom. The Eschelon acquisition is expected to close on August 31, 2007.



"Warburg Pincus' substantial investment in Integra validates our business model and recognizes the future potential that the company has as the largest, most established competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in the Western United States," said Dudley R. Slater, chief executive officer of Integra Telecom.



Warburg Pincus has a history of investing in the information and communication technology sectors, including investments in Avaya, BEA Systems, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Cassatt, Harbour Networks, NeuStar, Telcordia and VERITAS Software.

http://www.integratelecom.com

http://www.warburgpincus.com
  • In March 2007, Integra announced plans to acquire Eschelon Telecom, in a deal that would create the largest CLEC in the Western United States.

Redback Builds Momentum in Multi-Service Edge Routing

Redback Networks announced several deployment milestones:

  • Redback SmartEdge multi-service edge routers are delivering triple-play services to 15+ million broadband subscribers in China. Specifically, for China Telecom and China Netcom, Redback has deployed more than 1,000 broadband routing platforms in 22 of China's 32 provinces since 2005. Redback also is at the center of the largest IPTV deployments in China. Its IPTV customers include provincial carriers in Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Jiangsu. In the coming months, Redback will begin deploying video-on-demand and other broadband services for PCCW of Hong Kong, which has more than 800,000 IPTV subscribers today.


  • In greater Asia, Redback manages more than 27 million broadband subscribers, including 15+ million in China, 5.2 million in Korea, 3.6 million in Taiwan, 1.6 million in Thailand and 1.5 million in Japan.


  • Redback manages more than 63 million broadband subscribers for 15 of the top 20 telephone companies worldwide, an increase of 13 million since 2006. Since 2005, Redback is managing an additional 23 million broadband subscribers for telephone carriers building out next generation triple-play infrastructures, a 58 percent increase from 40 million subscribers in 2005.


  • Redback manages more triple-play subscribers in greater Asia (27M+) than it does in either EMEA (21M+) or the Americas (15M+).


  • In France, SmartEdge multi-service edge routers are delivering triple-play services to 7+ million broadband subscribers in France. This includes the deployment of more than 500 broadband routing platforms in France since 2001.


  • In greater Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Redback manages 21+ million broadband subscribers today, including 7+ million in France, 5.5+ million in the United Kingdom, 3.5+ million in Germany, 3+ million in Turkey and 1+ million in Belgium.
htt://www.redback.com

http://www.ericsson.com


Juniper Names Robyn Denholm as CFO

Juniper Networks named Robyn M. Denholm to the position of chief financial officer (CFO). She previously served at Sun Microsystems as senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Planning.

http://www.juniper.net

SyncVoice Raises $11.6 Million for Unified Mgt. Software, Changes Name to Communicado

SyncVoice Communications, a start-up based in Costa Mesa, California, raised $11.6 million in Series B financing for its solutions for managing converged voice/data communications. The company's "VXTracker" software product line is used by more than 400 customers.



The company also announced a new corporate name -- Communicado -- reflecting its value of extending beyond telephony to improving performance of all types of real-time collaborative communications across converged networks, including voice, video and live conferencing.



The new funding came from SoftBank Capital, Clearstone Venture Partners, and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. http://www.communicado-inc.com

VMware Soars in IPO

Shares in VMware (NYSE: VMW) soared 76% in its first day of trading to close at $51. The Palo Alto, California based company specializes in virtualization software.

http://www.vmware.com

GTL and Navini Sign Partnership for Deploying WiMAX Networks

Navini Networks signed a Value Added Services (VAS) agreement with GTL Limited, a network services provider based in India. Navini has an R&D center in Bangalore and offices in Bangalore and New Delhi. http://www.navini.com/http://www.gtllimited.com/

Wisair Builds Executive Team -- UWB Silicon

Wisair, a provider of Ultra Wideband (UWB) and Wireless USB (WUSB) chipset solutions, named Ziv Azmanov as vice president of marketing and Tal Keren-zvi as the Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) vice president.
Azmanov previously was vice president of marketing at Octalica Inc., which was recently acquired by Broadcom. Before Octalica, he was manager of the Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) business line at Texas Instruments. Keren-zvi previously was manager of all worldwide wireless PAN programs at Texas Instruments. In this role, he led a team of more than 100 engineers, spread over three continents, that specialized in wireless communications designs integrating analog, digital and several RF cores on the same chip. Previously, he was manager of VLSI development at BrightCom Technologies, a creator of Bluetooth silicon solutions. http://www.wisair.com

AT&T Wins $9.8 Million Project with U.S. Army Fort Bliss

AT&T was awarded a contract worth up to $9.8 million to develop a customer premise data network at Fort Bliss, Texas, for the U.S. Army. The project includes design, engineering, furnishing, installation, securing and testing outside plant cable and data-networking equipment for the Fort Bliss data network.



The contract was awarded to AT&T by the U.S. Army Project Manager Defense Communications and Army Switched Systems (PM DCASS) through the Infrastructure Modernization Program (IMOD). PM DCASS provides core data backbone and telecommunications infrastructure upgrades and modernizations to Army installations around the world.

http://www.att.com

AT&T Offers Storage Over SONET

AT&T announced a new capability that allows businesses to access a storage area network directly over Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) rings without the need for additional interface equipment. Until now, businesses with SONET rings had few choices if they wanted to operate a storage network; they could upgrade their existing SONET configuration or build a separate storage area network.



AT&T said its new storage-over-SONET interfaces to eliminate the need for new equipment by enabling a customer's existing SONET equipment to recognize traffic "tagged" specifically for a storage area network. The interfaces are available to customers of AT&T SMARTRing and LightGate optical transport services.



AT&T expects the storage-over-SONET interfaces will be especially useful to organizations such as hospitals, government institutions, call centers and financial services companies, which are required to maintain separate storage networks to comply with consumer-privacy regulations.



AT&T's storage interfaces over SONET are among several new enhancements to its SMARTRing and LightGate optical transport services. Other enhancements include expanded Ethernet capabilities over SONET and more options for connecting AT&T Wavelength services to SONET equipment. The enhancements to optical wavelength services include:

  • The reduction of required nodes for the Wavelength Dedicated Rings to two. This allows customers with smaller networks to take advantage of AT&T's wavelength services.

  • The introduction of a 10 GB Layer 1 local area network feature for point-to-point Wavelength service.

  • The ability to connect Wavelength services with SONET equipment for delivery of DS1 and DS3 services. This capability reduces the need for capital investment in additional optical connection equipment. AT&T offers a complete suite of optical solutions for both business and wholesale customers.
http://www.att.com/