Sun's telecom push nabs Siemens

Electronic News, Oct 9, 1995

geneva, switzerland--Siemens has tapped a microSPARC microprocessor-based platform for its new Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) optical network products--part of a flurry of Sun Microsystem-related announcements at Telecom '95 here last week. Sun's SPARC Technology Business unit also made a splash by unveiling partnerships with Temic's Matra MHS, for a new line of SPARC-based microcontrollers, and with Chorus Systems, which has ported its operating system to Sun's new SPARCengine 5 boards.

The deal with Siemens marks a significant design win; Siemens will develop a set of SDH-specific ASICs based on microSPARC designs. The ASICs will be used in a wide range of modular traffic and switch cards that are part of SDH network elements such as synchronous multiplexers, line systems and large cross-connect systems.

Siemens has already developed a SDH multiplexer as part of a joint Synchronous Transport Evolution Program (S.T.E.P.) program also involving GPT and ITALTEL. SDH is a European standard for optical network transmission analogous to SONET standard in the U.S.

Siemens' SDH transmission family, called TransXpress, will also employ a custom-configured version of SunSoft's Solaris. The new version will reduce the operating system's memory footprint.

"Our system architects realized that software would play a key role in ensuring the advanced performance requirements for all coming SDH products," said Helmut Stocker, transport product line manager. "Our experience with SDH networks revealed that future Management Network applications would require a high amount of distributed intelligence spread all over the network. In light of evolving management standards like Q3, and the growing sophistication required by leading telephony operators, we decided to equip all new network elements with a common synchronous network element controller, sufficient computing power to satisfy the product line's lifecycle performance requirements, and modern object-oriented software to ensure code reusability and easier adaptation to future network elements."

Sun expects to grow in Europe's telecom market through the new alliances with Chorus Systems and Temic. Chorus has had an ongoing relation with SPARC board vendor Force Computers, which will now make its designs available as reference platforms.

European telecom equipment vendors that use the Chorus operating system microkernel include Alcatel, Siemens, and Bosch. The Chorus microkernel is well-suited for use with telephony equipment because it runs real-time applications required for telecommunications, as well as off-the-shelf Unix applications.

"In just six years, Chorus has established its microkernel as the open microkernel of choice in the telecommunications industry," said Peter Harverson, director of SPARC technology business in Europe.

Temic/Matra MHS, meanwhile, has been quietly developing a family of SPARC-based microcontrollers called SPARClet. TEMIC, which stands for Telefunken Microelectronic GmbH, is a electronics subsidiary of Daimler-Benz. TEMIC has been growing steadily and earlier this month signed a preliminary pact to acquire ITT Semiconductors for about $100 million.

"Over the past three years, the technological partnership between Temic/Matra MHS and SPARC Technology Business has been an invaluable opportunity, which has allowed us to develop the right SPARC answer for the embedded market," said Alain Fanet, program manager at Temic/Matra MHS. "This alliance is today enforced by a complementary and a dedicated SPARC embedded product offering."

Sun's telecom push also revolves around a new line of embedded processors (EN, Aug. 28) and design kits targeting embedded applications. While the first products are based on microSparc MPU, Sun is also readying processors based on microSPARC II architecture and the new UltraSparc.

Referring to the new embedded telecom push, STB marketing VP Art Swift said: "While this is a significant new direction for SPARC Technology Business, it's one that's being driven by a group of key OEMs who intend to satisfy the emerging market for intelligent, networked telecommunications equipment and telephony application servers. In several cases, these OEMs are creating classes of systems that have not existed before."

In addition to Chorus, the SPARC Technology Business units has alliances with Wind River Systems and Lynx Real Time Systems for real-time operating systems and toolsets. The STB unit is creating common embedded application programming interfaces for the SPARC processors and boards running under the new customized versions of Solaris or traditional Unix.

"An increasing number of embedded SPARC designs are opting for Solaris as their embedded operating system, but could still benefit from a smaller memory footprint and a concentration on Solaris' base and networking features only," said Swift.