The Newport Beach, California-based networking arm of Rockwell International Corp has announced what is said to be the first single-device facsimile modem with speech compression capabilities, which is designed to allow OEM customers to add digital answering machine capabilities to facsimile machines. The RFX96V12 is said to incorporate a 5.7Kbps speech coder-decoder, enabling the host controller to store and play back digital messages by converting incoming analogue data into a compressed digital format: the company claims that its speech coding scheme – the Rockwell Proprietary Algorithm for the Compression of Speech – can store 12 minutes of speech per 4Mb of RAM while maintaining near toll quality speech. The product supports 9.6Kbps send-receive Group 3 facsimile, includes a Dial Tone Multi-Frequency receiver-generator and tone reception, and is also said to support Caller ID, DTMF detection during outgoing messages, and error correction for the use of Audio RAM storage devices. With samples available now, volume production is scheduled for March. Pricing for 10,000-up is to be $35.
