Breaking News
 
October 2001


Headlines


ORiNOCO Achieves USB And Wi-Fi Certifications
The USB Implementers Forum has awarded USB (Universal Serial Bus) certification to Agere Systems' ORiNOCO USB Client. According to the USB-IF, this is the first Wi-Fi-compliant device to earn the USB logo. The ORiNOCO USB Client allows high-speed wireless connectivity to be added to desktop computers. It provides a wireless network connection of up to 11 Mbps.
www.orinocowireless.com; 866-ORINOCO

Sun Enhances Sun Ray
Sun Microsystems has announced enhancements to its Sun Ray systems, including improved functionality and easier deployment requirements, as well as two new system bundles tailored for the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) market. The new Sun Ray Server Software 1.3 supports customers across qualified VLANs. With the new Packet Reporting Tool, system administrators should be able to reconfigure their router/switches to help meet the necessary quality of service requirements and maintain their existing VLAN environment. With the Controlled Access Mode feature, Sun Ray systems can now be configured to launch and restart applications automatically without a user log-in. Sun Ray technology also provides a solution for EDA customers, supporting collaboration and delivering server-based compute power to the desktop.
www.sun.com; 800-786-7638

Nortel Delivers Latest Version Of IP-PBX Solution
Nortel has delivered the latest version of Business Communications Manager, adding more than 20 new features to its IP-PBX solution for single and multi-site businesses and branch offices. Release 2.5 of Business Communications Manager adds features that include desktop Internet telephony, wireless IP, site-to-site VPN, Web-enabled call center capability, simplified file sharing, and browser-based management. It provides more than 300 voice and data features, based on Nortel Networks' Meridian PBX and Norstar key system.
www.nortelnetworks.com; 800-4-NORTEL

Mindmaker Announces Tisento Speech Rec SDK
Mindmaker has launched a software developer kit (SDK) for its Tisento telephony speech recognition. This latest offering complements Mindmaker's FlexVoice text-to-speech SDK. The kit is designed to enable developers to integrate telephony speech recognition into third-party applications. The SDK and its users are supported by a technical team to speech-enable a range of telephony-based services. The Tisento kit supports three modes of operation: live recognition from a supported telephony source, file-based recognition from any telephony source, or live recognition from a user-built telephony source. The SDK can be deployed on platforms supporting C++ compilers, including Windows NT/2000, RedHat Linux, and Sun Sparc Solaris. Other platforms and operating systems are available by arrangement.
www.mindmaker.com; 408-467-9211

One Stop Intros 6U Dual Processor CPU Boards
One Stop Systems has announced its 6U dual processor system and peripheral CPU boards. These boards feature hot-swappability, low power dissipation, and passive cooling, essentially doubling the performance with two Pentium III low power processors in SMP configuration at 500 MHz or 700 MHz each, and up to 1.5 GB of SDRAM, all designed into a single slot, 4HP, or dual slot, 8HP footprint. System and peripheral boards can be used together for scalable, multi-processing communication using TalkWare technology. TalkWare is compatible with operating systems such as Windows NT, VxWorks, pSOS, and Linux-based operating systems.
www.onestopsystems.com; 760-745-9883

Avaya And PowerDsine Building Advanced Switching System
Avaya and PowerDsine are building an advanced switching system that is based on open industry standards and delivers data and power over existing Ethernet networks. The new system, Avaya P333T-PWR, will integrate PowerDsine's Power over LAN technology into Avaya's P330 stackable switching system family. It is a fast Ethernet, integrated, 24-port device that delivers a unified source of data, voice, and power over standard Category 5 wiring up to 100 meters. It will also deliver 10 MB and power over legacy Category 3 wiring. The Avaya P333T-PWR delivers 48 Volt DC power to terminal devices such as the Avaya 4600 series of IP telephones at the switch level. An automatic line sensing capability identifies terminals as Power over LAN-enabled.
www.avaya.com; 866-GO-AVAYA
www.powerdsine.com; 631-756-4680

RadiSys Announces CP30
RadiSys has announced its 4U cPCI CPU chassis. Designed for a variety of OEM applications -- including voice and data servers, SS7 applications, VoIP servers, and e-mail servers -- the CP30 can be configured with a variety of cPCI-based building blocks from RadiSys. The CP30 comes equipped with a five-slot backplane that supports H.110 and features dual system slots and three peripheral expansion slots. Additionally, it supports rear transition I/O boards and gives OEMs central office compliance in a small form factor. The CP30 is 432 mm wide by 178 mm tall (4U) by 305 mm deep and is small enough to be configured in a box-redundant, 2N configuration.
www.radisys.com; 800-950-0044

Motorola Unveils Plans For MXP
Motorola Computer Group has unveiled plans for the Multi-Service Packet Transport Platform, or MXP. The MXP, which adheres to open industry standards regulated by the PICMG, is an embedded applications platform that helps provide fast throughput (more than 700 Gbps). The carrier-grade, high availability MXP is designed to be scaled for performance and throughput depending on the application and number of users. Its control architecture supports up to 18 distributed processors or eight distributed storage elements. The MXP also employs a mesh switch fabric to augment the 2.16 environment. The system interconnect configuration provides Fiber Channel connections to each slot from redundant aggregators/hub boards in addition to point-to-point connections.
www.motorola.com; 602-438-5797

Captaris Announces New Editions of CallXpress UM
Captaris has expanded its localized product offerings to provide more customers with CallXpress unified messaging software in their native language and within their familiar Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange interface. CallXpress is now available in German, Spanish, and French. Web PhoneManager, a component of CallXpress, is also now available in German, Spanish, and French for both Lotus Notes/Domino and Microsoft Exchange.
www.captaris.com; 425-820-6000

VMIC Intros VMICPCI-7760
VMIC has introduced the VMICPCI-7760, a dual-slot, dual Pentium III processor-based single-board computer with 133 MHz system bus, offering processor speeds up to 1 GHz. The SBC provides two independent 64 bit/66 MHz PCI buses: one is dedicated to the cPCI bus and the other is available to support I/O expansion. A third PCI bus (32 bit/33 MHz) is dedicated to onboard I/O (video and dual Ethernet). The VMICPCI-7760 accepts up to four PC-133 registered DIMM modules with ECC for a maximum memory capacity of 2 GB. The onboard DRAM is dual-ported to the cPCI bus.
www.vmic.com; 800-322-3616

Edify Integrates With SpeechWorks
Edify is integrating OpenSpeech Recognizer 1.0, SpeechWorks' next-generation speech recognition engine, into the Edify Voice vCSR (virtual Customer Service Representative) product line. OpenSpeech Recognizer is an open, standards-based recognition engine optimized for Voice XML. New “endpointing” technology is specifically designed to increase accuracy in wireless environments. Advanced telephony technology from NMS Communications will support the new Edify-SpeechWorks product. NMS' telephony boards feature high port densities and voice processing abilities. The vCSR, a key component of the Edify Enterprise Interaction Center, integrates seamlessly with existing desktop and legacy systems.
www.speechworks.com; 617-428-4444
www.edify.com; 408-982-2000

CoreExpress Teams With VCON
VCON has announced an agreement with CoreExpress to deliver a desktop video conferencing solution over the Internet. VCON's video conferencing solution, Media Xchange Manager (MXM), enables customers to deploy desktop video conferencing over the Internet by providing support for a variety of manufacturers' conferencing endpoints and centralized video administration. CoreExpress Extranet will provide the network platform for the VCON MXM solution.
www.coreexpress.net; 888-456-CORE
www.vcon.com; 512-583-7700

PICMG Kicks Off StarFabric Spec Effort
The PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturing Group has held a kickoff meeting for the 2.17 StarFabric CompactPCI subcommittee. The technical subcommittee's objective is to rapidly provide a common set of guidelines for implementing backplanes and cards to deliver the benefits of the StarFabric interconnect in the cPCI environment. The cPCI StarFabric interconnect specification will define redundant, switched, high-speed point-to-point connectivity among some or all slots using StarFabric switch cards. The StarFabric interconnect can coexist with 64 bit cPCI, H.110, and Ethernet backplanes as defined in PICMG 2.16. Systems that take advantage of StarFabric features can be designed to utilize existing single board computers and node cards. Special slots for active switching fabric elements, which may be redundant, will also be specified.
www.picmg.org; 781-246-9318

Alcatel Offers Convergence Starter Kit
Alcatel is offering business partners the Alcatel Convergence Starter Kit, a solution that provides medium to large enterprises the ability to trial voice/data convergence with options of in-building wireless capabilities for mobile workers and softphone functionality for remote workers. Alcatel's OmniPCX 4400 IP-based PBX and OmniStack 6024 stackable LAN switch provide these capabilities in a convergence solution that supports data devices and IP, digital, analog, and in-building wireless telephony devices. With the inclusion of an IP-enabler, the kit also demonstrates how a digital phone can evolve into a full-featured IP phone.
www.alcatel.com; 800-995-2612

ObjectWorld Announces CallAttendant Office
ObjectWorld has announced general availability for CallAttendant Office, its PBX-integrated unified messaging solution with an auto-attendant that is targeted at small to medium-sized businesses. The product integrates with the Microsoft Exchange server, enabling all messages to be stored in one mailbox and accessible from one location, either over the telephone or in the user's Outlook client inbox. CallAttendant Office offers an integrated auto-attendant with a GUI that users can manipulate to create logical call flow scripts at the extension level. The same set of features is available at the system level to enable the system administrator to manage and configure trunk lines, ports, and maintain system users, without having to program the PBX. The scalable application sits on existing infrastructure.
www.objectworld.com; 819-770-9998

StarVox Announces StarVox IP Centrex
StarVox has released StarVox IP Centrex, a VoIP application that allows broadband service providers to deliver VoIP-based virtual PBX services to small and mid-sized companies or branch offices. The application offers full support for traditional PBX functionality and interoperates with the PSTN, TDM-based VPNs, and leased lines. The solution supports MGCP IP hardphones as well as analog phones connected to MGCP residential gateways. It is a carrier-grade Unix-based application that runs on an open, scalable, MGCP and H.323v2 standards-based IP infrastructure. It is an add-on to StarVox VoIP Business Trunking with VPN.
www.starvox.com; 408-452-6700

CTI2 Upgrades W.W.Office
CTI2 has announced an upgrade of its W.W.Office unified communications platform. New tools help administrators define and manage all subscribers and their class of service profiles, and include enhanced organization branding support. The user interface now supports six languages and includes one-number capabilities. Additional enhancements include support for multimedia messaging (including animation, images, and rich text), synchronization of a unified address book with MS Outlook and PDAs, message-waiting indicator that notifies landline and wireless phone users of new messages, enhanced voice recorder and voice streaming player, and a two-way SMS, sending SMSs from a PC to an SMS device and back.
www.cti2.com; 781-229-5829

Phonetic Partners With Siemens
Phonetic Systems has announced a partnership with Siemens Information and Communication Networks. Phonetic's Voice Search Engine provides voice-driven telephone access to the full range of data stored in DirX, the directory server of Siemens' DirX Meta Directory product family. With an unlimited vocabulary size and the ability to process dynamic updates to information sources, Phonetic is providing voice access to data such as phone and fax numbers, departmental information, and e-mail and postal addresses. A direct connection to a phone number can be established if desired.
www.phoneticsystems.com; 781-276-2170
www.ic.siemens.com/networks; +49-89-722-33988

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