Something weird happened after I posted TranSwitch’s announcement of its Taurus configurable communication platform in last week’s
networkZONE news. Sometime between the time I put the news section to bed (around Midnight on Thursday) and when I checked on it Monday morning, the announcement disappeared. At first I figured that I’d somehow copied the wrong link from their web site when I spotted it during my weekly news scan, but when I went back to check I found that the announcement for Taurus had vanished without a trace. If you checked the link I posted, you’ll fhave found an
announcement for a 10 Gbit/s HDMI core in its place.
A chill went up my spine as I wondered if fourteen years of tech journalism had finally taken its toll and I’d started hallucinating the news. Fortunately, a bit of sleuthing around the Internet (thanks for the suggestion, Paul!) revealed that TranSwitch had indeed made the announcement and that copies of it were still available in other locations (see the conclusion of this editorial). With my sanity no longer in question (at least not by anyone other than my wife and a few close friends), I am still left with the mystery of what happened to that announcement.
Anyone who has worked in the tech media business knows that corporate recalls of press releases are not unheard of. Hardly a week goes by without getting an embargoed announcement from a company in the morning, only to get a second e-mail later in the day requesting a deletion because somebody on Rug Row made a decision to delay the news another week or two. This, however, is the first time I’ve seen a press release
vanish from a corporate web site after it had been released. It’s unclear as to whether TranSwitch actually sent out the announcement to the working press (or if it issued a subsequent recall) because I seem to have slipped off their press list when their last Marketing Communications Manager left the company. I did not get a reply to my e-mail from David Aquilino, the new marcom person, so I have no idea about what might have happened.
It’s tough to tell whether the TranSwitch stealthy recall of its announcement was due to some executive decision to hold the news until the start of a major trade show, a last-minute problem with the development schedule, or whether they found a big customer that wanted exclusive rights to the technology. Whatever the reason, I am hopeful that the Taurus introduction (whenever it actually happens!) is the start of a new growth phase for TranSwitch.
Although the company did quite well in the Nineties providing mappers, framers, and other SONET/SDH silicon for carrier and access applications, it seemed to lose some of its momentum as Ethernet/IP technologies began to dominate the scene over the last few years. Although I reviewed several very interesting Ethernet-over-SONET devices they introduced a couple of years ago, they’ve been uncharacteristically quiet of late, and I have not seen a new product on their web site in my weekly visits since November of last year.
With any luck, the misplaced announcement of the Taurus platform and the HDMI core that replaced it are harbingers of new growth and new directions within the company. If they are, I’ll be there to report on it: provided Mr. Aquilino ever replies to my e-mails.
Comments? Questions? Speculations on what’s going on at TranSwitch?
Post your thoughts on our blog or write me at
lhg at en-genius dot net.
For those of you who are curious about such things, here’s a
copy of the TranSwitch release that I was able to locate at the Press Release Point web site a few days ago:
TranSwitch announces Industry’s Most Flexible Programmable Silicon Platform for Access Applications
TranSwitch® Corporation (NASDAQ: TXCC) announced the Taurus Platform, which is a flexible programmable silicon platforms. The Taurus Platform is targeted for access applications. Taurus includes a targeted set of access interfaces, including GPON, Ethernet, and POTS/TDM. The company believes the TranSwitch Platform approach will create a paradigm shift in the industry by offering more flexibility and programmability than competitive architectures like FPGA and NPUs. The Taurus Platform implements most of the functions and features of the target application in software instead of a combination of hardware and software.
The product includes two RISC processors in the data plane along with a configurable buffer manager and a carrier-grade traffic manager. Control plane functions are performed by two MIPS processors. The combination of data plane processors and control plane processors along with the hardware, can be programmed for multiple applications and would allow customers not only to customize and differentiate their products but also to upgrade functions and features.
The Taurus Platform will be the basis for a series of GPON ONU solutions for SFU (single family unit), SBU (small business unit), MDU (multiple dwelling unit) and MTU (multiple tenant unit) applications with different firmware/software loads. The SFU solution is planned to be available in Q3 of this year. All the GPON product offerings will include appropriate application firmware and software to ensure that our customers' time to market is accelerated.
The Taurus Platform will also be used to create a variety of programmable Carrier Ethernet solutions for access and CLE applications. The first of these Carrier Ethernet Products based on the Taurus platform is a programmable NID (Network Interface Device). Like all Platform based products, the NID product offering will include the hardware, software and firmware as a complete solution.
Future access products from TranSwitch will all be based on similar programmable Platforms, Taurus being the first of a series planned for introduction starting Q3 of 2008. Subsequent Platforms will be targeting different market segments and provide higher performance and more flexibility.
More info:
TranSwitch
