So much has been sold off at Thorn EMI Plc that it is hard to keep track of what is left – but look closely, and there is still a lot there. One company that is going places in the Thorn camp is Thorn EMI Datatech, which is preparing to launch into the X25 packet-switching hardware market. It is working currently with an unidentified partner to produce X25 products for launch in the second quarter of 1988, which it also hopes to buy. The company wants to change the low profile image it has had as a result of selling data communications products OEM to companies such as British Telecom and Reuters until now. It is consequently opening up its own sales and support resources for direct sales. Datatech has been placed in Thorn’s Information Technology division with Datasolve, Software Sciences, the reamains of Thorn EMI Computer Software, as well as Micrologic and Thorn-Ericsson. Datatech also launched a new X21-compatible multiplexer, called Temux 2, aimed at leasers of 2Mbps circuits such as Megastream. The system has been co-developed with Newbridge Networks Corp, which recently set up operations in South Wales. The product is based on a 32-bit architecture and will support up to 96 voice channels with network management. It offers 32Kbps digital pulse code modulation for two-to-one speech compression and vector quantisation control gives four-to-one dynamic compression. It also has a 2B+1D interface, which Datatech calls a DNIC.
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