Pleasant Hill, California-based Tut Systems Inc has won heavyweight backing for its technology for transmitting 155Mbps Asynchronous Transfer Mode traffic over Category 3 Unshielded Twisted Pair voice grade phone cable. Tandem Computers Inc’s UB Networks Inc will incorporate it into its GeoSwitch 155, launched last year (CI No 2,426), and its range of Asynchronous Transfer Mode adaptors. The technology is claimed to operate over distances of up to 250 feet, but enhancements bringing this up to 300 feet are promised soon. In addition, Tut and UB will propose the technology to the ATM Forum for adoption as a standard – a move that could kill the ongoing debate as to whether the Forum should adopt a 25Mbps Asynchronous Mode standard. The ATM Forum originally rejected the plan, not out of technical considerations, but because it felt that a low-speed Asynchronous Transfer standard was not needed – and if it finds the Tut specification technically sound, the ability to transmit high-speed Asynchronous Mode over the vast installed base of Category 3 unshielded twisted pair would make 25Mbps Asynchronous Mode even more redundant.
