PMC-Sierra: Multi-Service Processor family for VoIP gateway apps.

PMC-Sierra, Inc. (NASDAQ:PMCS) has announced a family of integrated devices to reduce the cost of Voice-over-IP (VoIP) enabled broadband Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). The Multi-Service Processor (MSP) family, including the MSP2015, MSP2020, MSP4000 and MSP5000 devices, adds PSTN quality Voice-over-IP capabilities to Residential and SOHO broadband gateways, Analog Telephone Adapters (ATA) and small enterprise class IP based PBXs (see Figures 1 to 3). VoIP service deployment is experiencing rapid growth as competitive service providers target voice revenues and incumbent carriers introduce bundled triple play services (voice, data, and video) to retain customers and maximize average revenue per user.

"The VoIP assets that we have acquired have given us a leap forward into the broadband Customer Premises Equipment market," said Greg Aasen, Vice President and General Manager, Communication Products Division at PMC-Sierra. "The MSP family is truly synergistic with our MIPS-Powered processor family and positions PMC-Sierra in the forefront of the triple play service revolution."

"The MSP products were engineered from the start with the latency and QoS requirements of packet voice in mind," said Sanjay Iyer, Senior Analyst at The Linley Group. "The resulting architecture easily scales to address multiple real-time media streams to meet the requirements of the emerging class of triple play capable subscriber premises equipment."

Utilizing a 32-Bit MIPS architecture microprocessor core and up to 2 Dual-MAC DSP cores, the MSP products integrate both the routing function and the VoIP CODEC (Encoder/ Decoder) into a single device while providing the necessary performance to handle voice channels and high speed data connections.

Supporting standard VoIP protocols, the MSP products are complemented by a comprehensive, field-proven voice-processing software suite, which provides best-in-class end-to-end latency, packet-loss tolerance, and robust echo-cancellation. The suite also provides support for advanced call features such as 4-way conferencing, fax relay, and intelligent signal classification. Using systems built around the MSP products, customers were able to achieve an industry leading voice latency of just 87.6ms and a MOS (Mean Opinion Score--voice quality measurement for both PSTN and VoIP) of 4.1 in benchmark testing by Telecommunications Technology Association of Korea. This outstanding voice quality is achieved while simultaneously handling the high performance broadband routing function.

"PMC-Sierra's MSP4000 enabled us to rapidly develop a low cost, integrated broadband router and voice gateway with exceptional voice quality together with high data throughput. This has enabled our OEM customers to bring cost-effective, voice-enabled gateway products to market and fulfill the demand for toll-quality consumer VoIP services," said Mr. Dai Hwan Kim, CEO at Fromus Technologies, a Korean telecommunications CPE manufacturer.

PMC-Sierra's MSP2015, MSP2020, MSP4000 and MSP5000 devices are available now. A comprehensive support package, including an evaluation/development platform, software development kit, board layout and design documentation as well as application notes, is available. Software development kits are available to support VxWorks, Linux, or proprietary operating systems.