Telecom Leaders Launch Communications Platforms Trade Association to Certify Building Blocks to Interoperability Requirements.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- CP-TA:

--Adtron, Artesyn, Continuous Computing, Diversified Technology, Inc., ESO Technologies, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, Intel, Kontron, MontaVista Software, Motorola, Nortel Networks, Pentair-EP, Pigeon Point Systems and Wind River Form CP-TA

Adtron, Artesyn, Continuous Computing, Diversified Technology, Inc., ESO Technologies, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, Intel, Kontron, MontaVista Software, Motorola, Nortel Networks, Pentair-EP, Pigeon Point Systems and Wind River today announced the formation of the Communications Platforms Trade Association (CP-TA). CP-TA is an association of communications platform and building block providers dedicated to accelerating the adoption of SIG-governed, open specification-based communications platforms through interoperability testing and certification. With industry collaboration, the CP-TA plans to drive a mainstream market for Open Industry Standard Communications Platforms by certifying interoperable products.

"The CP-TA brings together industry leaders who are collaborating to establish a true standards-based ecosystem that delivers interoperable products from multiple vendors," said Shlomo Pri-Tal, CP-TA Chairman. "CP-TA will focus on certification, the essential 'third element' required to realize the full benefits of an open, standards-based communications platform. We are working closely with PICMG, the Service Availability Forum and the SCOPE Alliance, complementing their processes to realize this interoperability vision."

"Today, interoperability is the key hurdle to realizing the huge market potential of the open standards communications platforms industry," said Norm Bogen, Director of Networking, In-Stat. "By addressing interoperability issues, CP-TA fills a hole in the industry and as such, will be a critical gating factor in enabling the mainstream market for certified interoperable products. Customers will benefit from the lower integration costs and faster time to market that these products provide."

"SCOPE plans to establish profiles based on standards organizations specifications, such as PICMG, OSDL/CGL and SA Forum specs in order to accelerate the development of carrier-grade base platforms," said Dieter Carl, Vice-Chairman of SCOPE. "We are committed to working within the industry and organizations such as CP-TA to enable the delivery of open specifications based carrier grade base platforms, which are consistent with the SCOPE-profiles and are composed of interoperable commercial off-the-shelf building blocks. We support CP-TA's objectives to develop an interoperability certification program for COTS building blocks."

Currently, the communications platforms industry has developed a rich set of open specifications in order to build modular communications platforms. However, the number of optional requirements and inconsistent interpretations of mandatory requirements have prevented the industry from moving to the next level of interoperability.

The CP-TA intends to drive the creation of the mainstream market for open industry standard communications platforms by certifying hardware and software building block compliance to interoperability test requirements. CP-TA will develop interoperability test requirements coupled with detailed test procedures, and supported by industry-harmonized automated test suites and benchmarks. These test requirements will be based on existing open specifications from the SA Forum, PICMG and OSDL and on system-level profiles developed by SCOPE. Periodic CP-TA Interoperability Plugfests will provide a confidential environment for the CP-TA community to harmonize the execution of automated test suites, as well as offer a true multi-vendor environment for enhanced interoperability testing.

CP-TA-certified building blocks and base platforms consistent with SCOPE profiles will help network equipment providers simplify the selection process, increase supply chain flexibility, increase predictability of successful integration and reduce lifecycle management costs. Service providers will be able to increase the flexibility and scalability of their network as well as realize faster time to market with new, innovative services.

Communications Industry Support

"Addressing interoperability head-on is very important. It is the number one reason TEMs (telecom equipment manufacturers) aren't reaching the mainstream market for standards-based communications platforms," said Brian Partridge, Senior Analyst, Communications Network Infrastructure, Yankee Group. "Once this is tackled, other challenges such as availability and management can be effectively addressed. By developing a consistent methodology for interoperability testing, CP-TA is a logical choice to take on these challenges and help deliver the promise of interoperability that has been unfilled to date."

"We believe that defining and managing interoperability testing for AdvancedTCA is well served by industry-focused organizations like the CP-TA," said Joe Pavlat, PICMG Executive Director. "PICMG is working closely with CP-TA to help establish the underlying framework for defining the basic elements of compatibility and classification."

"All of the communications standards bodies share the same commitment to enhancing building block interoperability and the SA Forum plans to coordinate activities with the CP-TA and other organizations in order to move the industry forward," said Tim Kober, SA Forum President. "Through this collaboration we will be able to deliver on the promise of interoperability."

"We want products that are better, cheaper and faster, as well as safe, reliable, and high performing," said Jim Sylvester, Vice President-Technology with Verizon. "To meet the latter requirements, the Telecom industry relies on NEBS (Network Equipment Building Systems) requirements; the AdvancedTCA specification needs to support our NEBS requirements. We look forward to the increased reliability and interoperability that CP-TA certified building blocks will give us."

"Creating interoperability requirements that recommend standards options and certifying compliance with those requirements, as CP-TA proposes, is crucial to the success of efforts like AdvancedTCA," said Fred S. Cook, Architecture Strategy, with Sprint/Nextel. "Functional standardization of device operations and interfaces will reduce our costs and make open modular hardware standardization meaningful and compelling to service providers."

"Having a consistent standard is the first step to making AdvancedTCA a marketable solution for mainstream communications platforms. CP-TA is working to create a true 'industry standard' by narrowing the options for specification implementation and certifying interoperable building blocks," said Jim McGregor, Principal Analyst with In-Stat. "I see the efforts of the CP-TA as a key enabler for a new generation of communications platforms."

CorEdge Networks, Interphase, RadiSys, SBS Technologies and TietoEnator have also joined as adopter members.

Additional information about the trade association, its participating companies and membership information is available at www.cp-ta.org.