As well as causing a revolution in the Unix world and consternation to proprietary minimakers, RISC technology is beginning to cross over into teelcommunications, and Northern Telecom Ltd has switched to the MIPS Computer Systems Inc RISC for the processor in its latest rural telephone exchange, the DMS-10 400E; the DMS-10 family of digital switches was introduced in 1977, and the new RISC processor has successfully completed field trials, the company says. Use of the new CPU is designed to enable telephone service operators to offer a wider range of add-on services to their customers. Upgrading to a 400E involves removing 11 line cards and replacing them with three new line cards – and it is necessary to upgrade software to the 404 generic stream. The new processor increases processing speed, expands memory sixfold, and increases the maximum number of lines on the small exchange to 12,000 from 10,800. Previous Northern Telecom exchanges have been based in the Motorola 68000 family. The company says it has already received orders for 100 of the new processors.
