Breaking News
February 2001

 

News

Compex Announces Waveport-WL11
Compex has introduced the WavePort-WL11, an 11 Mbps wireless LAN card. Fully compliant with the IEEE 802.11 and 802.11b (DSSS) standards for wireless LANs, the Compex WavePort-WL11 uses radio frequency to transmit data from one point to another up to 250 meters. Compex provides a softbridge bundle that behaves like a software access point linking the wireless LAN to wired Ethernet LAN. To maintain data integrity, the Compex WavePort-WL11 incorporates a "chipping code" to recover the data packets in case of corruption. This data security and privacy protection measure is enhanced with the use of a 40-bit length RC4 private encryption key, the Wired Equivalency Protocol (WEP).

Apropos And Blue Martini Form Alliance
Apropos Technology and Blue Martini Software have announced a marketing and development alliance. The companies have completed integration between Apropos' Multimedia Interaction Management solution and the Blue Martini Customer Interaction System's Call Center module to improve the delivery and use of end user information for contact center agents. With the integration, inbound customer queries, whether through phone, Web, kiosk, or wireless device, can also be prioritized based on pre-defined criteria. The solution will incorporate IVR prompts, e-mail parsing, and direct integration with the Blue Martini Customer Interaction database. This enables access to customer, product, and order information, leading to screen pops and intelligent routing for call center agents. The solution also allows customers to make use of the system's self-service capabilities, enabling problem resolution without requiring an agent's time.

One Stop Introduces 1U cPCI Enclosure
One Stop Systems
has announced the introduction of its CompactPCI 1U-high enclosure with rear I/O support. The enclosure supports rear transition modules, allowing the service provider to route cabling to the rear of the enclosure while leaving the front board accessible for easy removal. The enclosure can accommodate one dual-slot single board computer or a one-slot SBC and one-slot peripheral board. The internally-mounted power supply furnishes all four cPCI voltages. An on/off switch with AC input is located on the rear panel. The hot swap-compatible backplane has two cPCI slots. Rear connectors are provided for rear I/O. The aluminum enclosure comes equipped with rackmount ears for mounting in a 19" rack or with rubber feet for tabletop operation. One Stop will optionally add company logos.

@Markets Association Formed
The @Markets Association was recently launched to represent the needs of the business-to-business exchange community. Created by the Futures Industry Association (FIA), @Markets will support companies involved in all forms of B2B e-commerce, including independent B2B exchanges, coalition marketplaces, and private exchanges. The @Markets organization is involved with assisting participants in B2B communities in developing online trade. @Markets is expected to attract both independent and coalition vertical market makers from a cross-section of industries, as well as service providers and traditional financial services firms. The new association will host conferences, initiate discussions on standardization of practices and agreements, and collect and disseminate information of interest to the B2B community.

Portal Connect Intros Centenium XL 3.1
Portal Connect has announced the release of Centenium XL 3.1, the company's newest contact center management solution, featuring comprehensive management tools for the collections market. The Centenium XL 3.1 system includes a suite of features custom-designed for the credit and recovery market. It provides messaging capabilities with both the Lucent G3 switch and the Portal Connect proprietary Call Processor 12000. For Call Processor systems, Centenium XL 3.1 utilizes Portal Connect's Encore Plus system to record and manage digital messages. The system can also be integrated with G3 vector programming or the Call Processor Digital Announcement to Answering Machine (DAMM) feature. Messages, which can be shared across campaign sessions, are recorded and stored in digital form on a separate Encore PC when utilizing the Portal Connect Call Processor 12000 switch, and a high-speed SCSI connection handles the file transfer between the Encore server and the voice processor board. Other features include diligence tracking, skip tracing, aging capabilities, directory assistance, and do not call (DNC) capabilities.

Quicknet Technologies And Black Ice Partner
Black Ice Software and Quicknet Technologies have jointly announced that MicroTelco users can now view their e-mail fax with Black Ice's free Tiff Viewer. Recently launched by Quicknet Technologies, MicroTelco is a service that brings multiple ITSPs together in an online account center. With Black Ice's free Tiff Viewer, MicroTelco users can display a fax image and open multi-page .tif images sent to their e-mail address. The Tiff Viewer download link will be included in all MicroTelco e-mail notification messages; MicroTelco users can connect a standard fax machine to their computer using Quicknet's hardware. When the Internet-based fax-to-e-mail is sent to the recipient, they will open the e-mail with a fax document attached, ready to be viewed in the form of a .tif file. If they are unable to view the document, then the Black Ice Tiff Viewer link is provided. Users can upgrade the Tiff Viewer to the Tiff Viewer & Browser Plug-in for enhanced functionality. 

GMi Digital Selects PixStream
PixStream, recently acquired by Cisco, and GMi Digital have announced that GMi has selected PixStream video networking systems to provide switched digital TV to its broadband access networks. GMi Digital will launch two different access network solutions, including a 100-Mbps fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network and an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) network. The network capacities of these two solutions combined with PixStream video networking systems will enable GMi to provide interactive digital television and high-speed Internet access to its customers. The PixStream VDS5000 video networking system will be used as a complete video head-end in a dual-phase market softlaunch. The system will aggregate TV channels from various sources and demodulate, demultiplex, and descramble the satellite TV channels. The analog terrestrial TV channels will be encoded and adapted to IP over both fiber and copper telephone networks.

Jungo Go-HotSwap Incorporated in Advantech cPCI
Advantech has selected the Jungo Go-HotSwap operating system extension to provide hot swap capabilities on its cPCI system MIC-3032. Advantech will offer MIC-3032 with Windows 2000, and implement Go-HotSwap as the hot swap software infrastructure. Go-HotSwap also includes driver development tools that enable development of hot-swappable drivers from scratch. The resulting code will compile and run on all supported operating systems. Go-HotSwap provides the mechanism to manage and administrate the cPCI bus. Telecom/datacom vendors can implement cPCI hot swap capabilities on Windows 2000, NT, NT-Embedded, CE, 9x, Linux, Solaris, and VxWorks. Advantech's MIC-3032 is a 9U-high enclosure with eight cPCI slots for rack mounting. It supports H.110 CT bus and rear panel I/O for CTI applications. Various configurations can be made according to particular application requirements. The 6U-sized, 8-slot backplane supports 32-bit or 64-bit (optional) operation.

Continuous Computing Announces 12-Inch Deep cPCI
Continuous Computing Corporation has announced its new 12-inch deep CompactPCI system designed for Central Office and other applications. Designed for installation in central offices where space is at a premium, the 12-deep front-access form factor allows frames to be put back to back or directly against the wall. The system enables the deployment of significant computer power in high-density configurations, pushing intelligence to the edge of the network. The new system provides the same functionality as a standard CompactPCI system and the absence of transition cards means fewer components and a longer mean time before failure (MTBF). The 12-inch system includes the Continuous Control Node (CCN), CCPU's out-of-band management tool for CompactPCI. Also included is upSuite, CCPU's high-availability middleware that supports disk mirroring at wireline speeds with sub-second failover.

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