Start-up PCtel to challenge 56K modem arena

Electronic News, March 3, 1997 by Christa Hardie

Milpitas, Calif.--Another challenger is preparing to enter the emerging 56 kilobits-per-second (kps) analog modem chip market, where two separate camps are already posturing for industry dominance.

Taking a neutral stance on the standards front, modem card start-up PCtel uses a software approach it calls Host Signal Processing (HSP), with which it aims to carve out a sizeable share of the second- and third-tier PC OEM market.

Consumers may not yet know of PCtel but OEMs apparently do. The privately-held 50-employee company shipped nearly a million units last year worth $16.5 million in revenue. The company believes it can increase sales to $50 million in 1997 by expanding its desktop-oriented product line into the notebook and handheld segments.

PCtel's HSP technology is designed to replace digital signal processor (DSP), microcontroller, memory and UART interface parts with a single ASIC and a codec and draw upon the power of the host processor. By leaving advanced audio and video functions to add-on cards, the HSP modem keeps cost, footprint and power consumption to a minimum, PCtel claims.

In late March, just in time for WinHEC, the company plans to roll out samples of its initial 56Kps entry, the PCT388 data/fax/voice modem chip. The PCT388 has a claimed power consumption of 75 milliwatts (mW) at 5-volt operation. Combined with a 16-bit modem codec, total modem card power consumption is 200 mW, compared to 700 mW for a typical DSP solution, according to Navin Rao, PCtel's VP of product marketing. The chip will be housed in a 100-pin PQFP or TQFP priced at $30, based on orders of 10,000.

The company's roadmap features a RISC-based 14.4 modem for PDAs (personal digital assistants) in 2Q97 and later, in 3Q97, the company will target the notebook PC market with the PCT488, a single chip combining the functions of the PCT388 and a codec. According to Mr. Rao, OEMs increasingly want modems on daughtercards in order to free up the PCMCIA slot. In the latter half of the year, the company will follow with an ISDN modem and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) modem.

Meanwhile, PCtel doesn't really care whose architecture wins out in the standards battle, as long as the 56Kps market thrives.

"Our thinking is like Microsoft's in the sense that upgrades to our products can be done in software with just a CD-ROM," said Mr. Rao.

"The thing that's important for the user is: down the road, can he still use (the modem)? In the long run, companies have to support industry standards," he said.

Rockwell, Lucent and Motorola are promoting the K56 initiative as an open platform to international and domestic standards bodies, while US Robotics is taking a solitary stance with its x2 architecture. US Robotics, however, has drummed up the support of America On Line, currently the largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) with about 8 million subscribers, and claims to have the backing of some 60 other ISPs. Last week, US Robotics reportedly delivered its pre-standard 56Kps modems to AOL, based on DSP chips from Texas Instruments, while products from Rockwell and others are due later this month.