Ibm And Onex Communications Team To Accelerate Introduction Of Optical Networking Chips - Company Business and Marketing

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Oct 2, 2000

IBM and Onex Communications have entered into 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.

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."