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Because this new technology is based on existing modem chipset
architectures, TI will make x2 technology available by the end of this year.
Nearly 20 million modems using TI chipsets have been in mass production since
1995. This ability to swiftly deploy a new, state-of-the-art communications
technique to end users exemplifies the advantage TI's software-programmable
modem chipsets brings to modem manufacturers.
"The promise of 56 kilobit modems certainly represents one of the
biggest Internet connectivity breakthroughs in history," said Mike Hames, vice
president Semiconductor Group and worldwide manager of DSP at TI. The new 56
kbps x2 technology uses traditional telephone lines to allow Internet and
on-line services users to download text, image, and video data at twice the
speed of today's 28.8 kbps modems.
"Any kind of 56 kbps connectivity requires identical protocols both in
the user's modem and at the Internet service providers [ISPs] where
reprogrammable USR modems are already widely installed," continued Hames.
"This alone will make x2 an automatic de facto standard for Internet access
equipment." Any modem product designed using the TI chipsets, including PC
modem cards, external PC modems, and Internet access equipment, will be
compatible with x2.
TI's operating-system-independent, and Windows(TM)-based modem chipsets
are built around one of the company's TMS320 DSP cores. This lets modem
product designers easily upgrade end equipment with new technology through
software reprogrammability both at the host level and at the DSP level,
protecting end users against hardware obsolescence.
According to Casey Cowell, chairman, CEO, and president of U.S.
Robotics, "USR has long depended on programmable TI DSP solutions to give
our modems significant performance advantages, and we are pleased to be
working with Texas Instruments to bring this new technology to market. Based
on TI's leading DSP technology, we will be able to upgrade many of our existing
modem architectures without any hardware changes. This flexibility is key in
bringing x2 to market quickly."
TI has emerged as a clear leader in providing modem chipsets to
end-equipment vendors. For example, TI was first-to-market with modem
chipsets supporting 33.6 kilobit-per-second connection speeds, and to date,
nearly 20 million V.34 modems have shipped using TI DSP chipsets. Advanced,
DSP-based handshaking techniques let TI-based modems connect over a highly
unpredictable assortment of line conditions throughout the worldwide telecom
infrastructure. The new x2 modems are based on these same chipsets and are
already in trial use at 56,000 bits-per-second at selected ISP sites.
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