LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INTRODUCES LOW-COST, HIGH-DENSITY LINE CARD CHIPS FOR TELECOM SWITCHING APPLICATIONS.Lucent Technologies (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : LU) Microelectronics microelectronics, branch of electronic technology devoted to the design and development of extremely small electronic devices that consume very little electric power. Group, has launched a family of low-cost, high-density subscriber line The line from the customer site to the local telephone company. See subscriber network. interface circuit (SLIC SLIC Subscriber Line Interface Circuit SLIC Scottish Library and Information Council SLIC System Licensed Internal Code SLIC Subscriber Line Interface Card SLIC Session Layer Interface Card (Alacritech, Inc. ) chips targeted for telecommunications Communicating information, including data, text, pictures, voice and video over long distance. See communications. switching equipment used in countries with developing communications infrastructures, such as China, Brazil, and India. Lucent's family of chips, the L9217, L9218, and L9219, cost only $2.75 in quantities of 10,000 -- a very low price for semiconductor chips at such quantities. "In developing countries such as China, Brazil, and India, which typically have high population densities with very low deployment of telephone service to the population, the key is to provide basic plain old telephone service (POTS) at very low cost points," said Paul Pietrusewicz, strategic marketing manager with Lucent's Microelectronics Group. "This family of chips enables our customers in those countries and others to satisfy aggressive cost restrictions while meeting all requirements for basic POTS service." In addition to its low cost, the chip family is made within a very small chip package (11.5 millimeters squared) and requires few external components, thereby enabling reduction of electronics costs for equipment manufacturers. The chip family is also intended to interface with Lucent's programmable T8533, T8534, T8535, and T8536 series of codec (1) (enCOder/DECoder) A hardware circuit that performs analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) and digital-to-analog (DAC) conversion. When analog signals are entered into a computer, cellphone or other device via a microphone or video source such as VHS tape or analog TV, (compression/decompression) chips. Together, they form a complete line interface circuit. Because Lucent's SLIC and codec chips are designed to work together, the interfaces help save overall circuit boards costs. Furthermore, the chip designs are simple, so there is no need for extensive design time of the SLIC and codec chips. Lucent's SLIC and codec product families are offered in small surface mount packages that can enable equipment manufacturers to achieve high board densities of 32 channels on double sided circuit boards, which are critical requirements in basic service, low-cost markets. Reducing chip size and integrating more phone line circuits on a single printed circuit board can save money by maximizing the number of phone lines without increasing equipment costs. The Lucent chip set is also programmable via software, giving users the ability to adapt their circuit boards to virtually any worldwide telecommunications standard via software rather than invest in additional hardware. "These integrated circuits Integrated circuits Miniature electronic circuits produced within and upon a single semiconductor crystal, usually silicon. Integrated circuits range in complexity from simple logic circuits and amplifiers, about 1/20 in. (1. are designed in Lucent Technologies complementary bipolar (1) See bipolar transmission. (2) One of two major categories of transistor; the other is "field effect transistor" (FET). Although the first transistors and first silicon chips were bipolar, most chips today are field effect transistors wired as CMOS logic, which process technology, which allows for high performance circuit designs at low costs," said John Gammel, Bell Labs design and applications manager for analog line A wire (cable) that carries an analog signal. See analog. card products. "Our design emphasis for this application was aimed at lowest possible cost, so extra attention was paid to achieving the desired function using the smallest possible number of transistors. Additionally, the L9217, L9218, and L9219 were all designed to be pin-compatible, allowing easy conversion of circuit board designs for various features." |
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