Revitalised Kanata, Ontario private telephone systems and equipment manufacturer Mitel Corp wants to get in on what promises to be a boom market for Asynchronous Transfer Mode equipment, and its semiconductor division is to participate in an initiative sponsored by the Strategic Microelectronics Consortium, which brings together nine out of 10 of the microelectronics players in Canada, to develop Asynchronous Transfer products. So far, the ATM Forum has concentrated on data specifications, but users want computer-integrated telephony applications over Asynchronous Transfer networks as well. Accordingly, under the terms of the ATM Alliance initiative, Mitel’s semiconductor division and PMC-Sierra Inc of Burnaby, British Columbia will develop integrated circuits and the Newbridge Microsystems division of Newbridge Networks Inc, also of Kanata, will build them into Asynchronous Transfer interface boards. Mitel will concentrate on components designed to enable multiple isochronous real time services to be developed in a mixed Asynchronous Transfer Mode-Time Division Multiplexed environment and will be able to accommodate various data rates, interconnection architectures and interfaces. Mitel’s semiconductor division plans to offer a multimedia capability without waiting for new specifications to be developed. By using an isochronous transport in the workgroup, the devices will enable networked multimedia applications based on client-server architecture, it says. Mitel’s devices will also enable interworking with the public switched telephone network based on 8KHz synchronisation, and enable portions of bandwidth to be dynamically assigned for Asynchronous Transfer Mode traffic. They will be compliant with Multi Vendor Integration Protocol interface standards, and will enable interconnection of standard 80386-based personal computers. Integration Protocol boards already provide interactive speech and video response, facsimile and other office functions, but Mitel’s components are designed to make new functionality possible by enabling the desktop applications to be networked using a reliable telephone system, it promises. Mitel expects to have first devices by the third quarter 1994.
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