GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd, Coventry enhanced its iSDX PABX with the move to the Motorola Inc 88000 RISC (CI No 2,282) including the introduction of an Open Communications Architecture which is to implement Novell Inc’s Telephony Services for NetWare and Microsoft Corp’s Telephony Application Programming Interface. The iSDX now also has an interface conforming to the Basic Rate Euro-ISDN specification and another interface enabling CT2 cordless hand-sets to be used. The enhanced iSDX is available immediately and the company adds that existing users can field upgrade any iSDX, right back to the product’s earliest incarnation, to 88000 RISCs.
iSDX-Micro
The introduction of RISC-based processing is the first step in GEC Plessey’s Open Communications architecture, but Telephony Services for NetWare and the Microsoft Telephony application programming interface are not to be introduced until 1995, when GEC Plessey also says it will introduce an open Ethernet interface directly into the RISC processor. Called the Advanced Connectivity Interface, this is intended to enable Computer Supported Telephony Applications to be extended throughout a business via the company’s existing local network infrastructure. Basic Rate ISDN-compatability is to be offered across the ISDX range, including the company’s low-end iSDX-Micro where it envisages it will be used for branch offices wanting to integrate with central ISDN systems. According to GEC Plessey, the CT2 interface, based on the Common Air Interface standard, has been built right in to the iSDX, rather than bolted on: this, it says, enables all telephony-related applications to be extended to mobile users as they are developed. CT2 compatability is also to be available across the whole range, and a single iSDX is said to support up to 500 CT2 users. For the future, it says it is developing iSDX gateways to IBM Corp and Unix computer systems, in support of the alliance between ICL Plc and software-based computer-integrated telephony supplier IDS Ltd of Woking, Surrey. There is no word yet on pricing.
Content from our partners
