networkZONE Products for the week of October 14, 2002
Mindspeed Says . . .
Handset to Ethernet - Mindspeed's Voice-Over-Packet
Silicon PBX is Industry's First to Deliver Converged Voice and Data Networking
The latest addition to its family of communications convergence
processors, the M825xx silicon PBX (SiPBX) complements the company's recently
announced Miro M82610 processor that bridges wireless & wireline networks
for voice transport. The Chagall M825xx enables equipment manufacturers
to design low-cost, high quality and high security packet voice systems,
enabling "handset to Ethernet" capabilities for business and residential
phone applications.
The M825xx integrates signaling, encryption, packet processing and signal processing functions, handling up to 64 channels of highly compressed packet voice on a single chip. Software bundled with the device, developed and tested to carrier class standards, provides the full range of wireline voice codecs. When combined with one or more Miro convergence processors, which share a common programming model and aggregation architecture, the M825xx provides a scalable solution from 16 to 2,016 channels, while preserving development investment and accelerating time-to-market.
"Our new M825xx silicon PBX addresses the three major hurdles facing enterprise packet voice equipment designers today - system complexity, voice quality and security," said Tom Eichenberg, vice president of marketing for Mindspeed. "Our combination of true system-on-chip technology, with an unmatched portfolio of proven voice band processing algorithms, enables our customers to deliver on the promise of converged voice and data in the rapidly expanding enterprise and multi-tenant markets.
Technical Details
The M825xx SiPBX products combine a fifth-generation DSP core soft encryption engine, programmable packet processor and a user-programmable high-performance embedded host controller. The embedded host is 100 percent available for user applications and signaling, and can support a wide variety of telephony and packet signaling protocols including SIP, H.323 and H.248.
The voice processing subsystem runs up to 64 channels of Mindspeed's field proven carrier-class G.7xx codecs and echo cancellation, supporting packet-to-TDM, packet-to-packet, and TDM-to-TDM operation for up to 512 subscriber lines. Software supplied with the device also includes a robust T.38 Fax Relay protocol, leveraging Mindspeed's wide deployment of fax solutions. The embedded low-latency payload encryption engine, essential to address the security issues of packet telephony in the enterprise, supports a wide range of industry standard ciphers, from RC2 to 3DES, with software upgradeability to meet the changing needs of secure voice communications going forward.
Mindspeed's family of communications convergence processors is optimized
for a variety of telecommunications equipment including: voice and media
gateways for Enterprise and multi-tenant unit (MTU); wireless base transceiver
stations (BTSs); base station controllers (BSCs) and mobile switching centers
(MSCs); digital loop carriers (DLCs); Class 4 and 5 switches; integrated
access devices (IADs); IP routers; IP PBX systems; and remote access concentrators
(RACs).
analogZONE Says . . .
Damn, this is cool. Mindspeed has obviously leveraged its expertise in TDM switching, voice processing, and IP telephony and squished it onto a single chip. Depending on which chip you pick, you can build an enterprise voice gateway, a digital loop carrier, or IP PBX that cheerfully accepts POTS TDM on one side and seamlessly interfaces to an IP-based Ethernet connection on the other. Back in '94 when I first started writing about computer telephony, it took a PC and a batch of specialized cards to make up a 128-channel digital PBX, and now it can be implemented in two chips.
Sadly, Mindspeed sprung this product on me too quickly to arrange for a briefing, so I don't have many details I would need to fully evaluate this family of PBX-on-a-chip components. But from what I can tease from their somewhat vague product briefs, this is a very impressive product. The basic part seems to be a nice integration of a TDM switch and voice processing engine, a packet processing engine that bridges the TDM and IP domains, and an ARM RISC processor to handle signaling and control functions. This is complemented by an encryption unit to support secure IP communications. An on-chip 10/100 Ethernet MAC handles the IP interface, while a TDM bus takes care of the POTS line side.
Depending on the application, you can select a chip with 16-, 32-, or 64-line capability. Should you wish to support more lines, the literature seems to indicate you can aggregate multiple PBX chips using the M82610 "Miro" convergence processor as a bridge.
If I'm reading the sketchy promotional literature correctly (I really wish I'd been pre-briefed!), both the M825xx PBX series and the M82610 employ the same programmable DSP cores in their innards, making it possible to distribute complex speech processing tasks amongst them. The common software library they share should allow quick development of products which combinations of employ speech compression, format translation, and echo cancellation. While their processing functionalities overlap somewhat, the M825xx PBX IC has encryption capability that the M82610 convergence processor does not, and the M82610 has a much more capacity (up to 480 channels of voice) and support for a more extensive set of codecs and voice modulators - including those used for CDMA, and GSM cellular applications.
Today's markets are demanding extremely cost-effective solutions, and the M825xx should deliver them. Whether it's adding channels or IP backhaul capability to an existing DLC, or creating a cost-effective enterprise voice gateway/PBX system, this chip seems to offer excellent value and versatility.
Since it's hard for me to substantiate some of the more interesting claims for this family of chips with the information I have, I must add some points to my Vapor Index Rating. But since Mindspeed has extensive background in both TDM and IP telephony, and an excellent track record in delivering on promises, I'm only adding a half-saltshaker.
The M825xx SiPBX system is sampling now in a 19 mm FPBGA with pricing starting at $139 in 10-k piece lots.
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