IBM And Onex Communications Team to Accelerate Introduction of Optical Networking Chips

Business Wire, Sept 25, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2000

IBM and Onex Communications today announced a strategic technology agreement intended to speed the introduction of high speed custom chips for optical communications networks.

Under this technology relationship, IBM will manufacture customized ASICs (application specific integrated circuits) developed by Onex for use in multi-service optical communications networks. These ASICs will include high performance communications cores from IBM and utilize IBM's SA-27E ASIC process technology, both of which are optimized to deliver the scalable bandwidth and data throughput required by optical network equipment makers.

As part of the agreement, IBM will acquire an equity stake in Onex.

"The explosive growth of voice and data traffic on existing telecom networks has generated unprecedented demand for high performance ASICs to power next-generation optical networking equipment," said Christine King, vice president of semiconductor products for IBM. "Onex is tapping IBM's industry-leading ASIC technology to build chips designed to help equipment suppliers eliminate bandwidth bottlenecks and reduce network congestion."

Onex Communications' innovative iTAP chip architecture was developed to enable optical network equipment makers to provide multi-service provisioning platforms that intelligently aggregate, route and switch cells or packets of information across key network layers and protocols, such as ATM, IP, Frames and SONET/SDH.

"Few semiconductor manufacturers in the world have process and transceiver technology sufficient to support the high performance of the Onex iTAP devices. With its excellence in technology, IBM was at the top of our list," said Phil Nyborg, president of Onex Communications. "Onex is confident that as a result of this technology relationship with a world class supplier like IBM, our customers can depend on Onex as a reliable source of high performance components."

About IBM

IBM Microelectronics is a key contributor to IBM's role as the world's premier information technology supplier. IBM Microelectronics develops, manufactures and markets state-of-the-art semiconductor technologies, products, packaging and services. Its superior integrated solutions can be found in many of the world's best-known electronic brands. More information about IBM Microelectronics can be found at www.chips.ibm.com.

About Onex Communications

Onex is a Boston-based company developing a family of highly scalable VLSI products based on a breakthrough architecture. The Onex product family will enable development of next generation multi-service platforms for provisioning and bandwidth management for new services in metropolitan optical networks. Onex is a privately held corporation backed by Star Ventures, St. Paul Ventures, Venrock Associates, Signal Lake Ventures, The Seed Fund and TranSwitch Corporation. More information about Onex is available at www.onexco.com.