COMCAST SELECTS QUANTUM BRIDGE'S OPTICAL ACCESS SYSTEM
Comcast Telecommunications awarded a multi-year, multi-city contract to Quantum Bridge Communications for its Optical Access System. Financial terms were not disclosed.  http://www.quantumbridge.com
Quantum Bridge, October 3, 2000

• Quantum Bridge’s system consists of a central office Optical Access Switch and a customer premise Intelligent Optical Terminal (IOT).  The architecture uses a Dynamic Wavelength Slicing (DWS) protocol to share a single wavelength delivering broadband services among multiple end-points.  Quantum Bridge’s IOT initially supports 10/100BaseTx Ethernet and TDM, ATM and Frame Relay DS1 (T1) service interfaces.  Its Optical Access Switch, which is located in a central office, service node or head-end, can aggregate services from hundreds of downstream IOTs. The switch is equipped with a standard OC-12c WAN interface and a redundant 5 Gbps (upgradeable to 20 Gbps) IP and ATM switching fabric.  By eliminating electrical components in the outside plant with PON technology, Quantum Bridge expects to significantly lower the cost of first mile fiber access.  The company is based in North Andover, MA.

NEC SETS NEW DWDM RECORD – 6.4 TBPS (160 CHANNELS AT 40 GBPS)
NEC Corporation successfully transmitted 6.4Tbps over a single 186km fiber.  The test carried 160 wavelengths at 40 Gbps using 50GHz spacing.  http://www.necpng.com
NEC Corporation, October 3, 2000

• Last month, Alcatel announced a DWDM test carrying 5.12 Tbps over 300 km over fiber (128 wavelengths at 40 Gbps).

QWEST TO DEPLOY AVICI'S TERABIT SWITCH ROUTER
Qwest Communications committed to deploy Avici Systems' Terabit Switch Router (TSR) in its next-generation, all-optical IP network.  Financial terms were not disclosed.  The equipment initially will be installed in four cities this year as part of a field trial expected to last several months. Upon the successful completion of the field trial, the TSR will be deployed in Qwest's production network.  http://www.avici.com/pr100300.html
Avici Systems, October 3, 2000

• Avici's Terabit Switch Router (TSR) is designed to scale up to 2,240 OC-48 or 560 OC-192 connections with carrier-grade reliability.  The platform uses custom ASICs supporting QoS functionality. 

• Last month, Qwest awarded a major contract to for its core optical switches ,

GLOBAL CROSSING SIGNS $500 MILLION FIBER LEASE WITH TELECOM ITALIA
Telecom Italia agreed to purchase 10,000 km of dark fiber on Global Crossing's Pan European Crossing system and 18,000 km of dim fiber on its forthcoming South American Crossing system.  In return, Global Crossing will purchase dim fiber on Telecom Italia's Nautilus Mediterranean system, connecting Israel, Turkey, Greece and Egypt.  Global Crossing valued the contract at over $500 million.  http://www.globalcrossing.com/pressreleases/pr_100300.htm
Global Crossing, October 3, 2000

COVAD REACHES 200,000 DSL SUBSCRIBERS
Covad Communications exceeded it goal of 200,000 DSL subscribers by the end of Q3.
http://www.covad.com/companyinfo/pressreleases/pr_2000/100300_press.shtml
Covad, October 3, 2000

• Covad attributed its faster than expected growth rate in Q3 to its acquisition of BlueStar, as well as the Verizon's recent work stoppage. 
  

• Last month, Covad signed a six-year, $600 million agreement under which it will serve as an in-region and out-of-region DSL provider for SBC Communications. 

CISCO OUTLINES OPTICAL MANUFACTURING STRATEGY
Cisco Systems outlined a three-phase optical manufacturing strategy that includes:  a worldwide recruitment effort (2,500 employees within the next 3-5 years); $100 million in capital and interior improvements; and the establishment of a "portable photonics manufacturing process" to help its strategic partners quickly adopt new optical manufacturing processes. The optical manufacturing strategy follows the "virtual manufacturing" model that Cisco uses to scale its other production needs through external manufacturers.  Cisco opened a New England Manufacturing Center in Salem, New Hampshire to handle assembly and distribution of optics-based routers and networking solutions.  http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/2000/oct00/corp_100300.htm
Cisco Systems, October 3, 2000

PMC-SIERRA ANNOUNCES DUAL PORT GIGABIT ETHERNET CHIP WITH POS-PHY LEVEL 3 INTERFACE
PMC-Sierra introduced a dual port Gigabit Ethernet transceiver with a standard POS-PHY Level 3 system interface.  The device could be used to create Gigabit Ethernet line cards in carrier class networking equipment supporting ATM, Frame Relay, IP and Gigabit Ethernet (GE) traffic at 51 Mbps up to 2.5 Gbps (OC-48) line rates.  The chip is implemented entirely in mainstream 0.18 micron 3.3 / 1.8 volt CMOS technology.
http://www.pmc-sierra.com/gigabitethernet/index.html
PMC-Sierra, October 3, 2000

ASTRAL POINT ADDS OC 192 TO ITS METRO SONET/ATM/IP/TDM PLATFORM
Astral Point announced two new OC 192 modules for its ON 5000 metropolitan transport platform, which is designed to integrate SONET protection, frame and cell switching, leased line TDM, and optical ADM capabilities.  One of the new modules maps a single OC192 SONET-compatible signal to an OC192 DWDM.  The second module multiplexes four OC48 SONET compatible signals into a single OC192 DWDM wavelength.  The OC192 modules use standard optics and are compatible with other vendors' DWDM systems supporting 100Ghz spacing on the ITU-T Grid.  Beta testing is expected in Q4.  http://www.astralpoint.com
Astral Point, October 3, 2000

• Astral Point's ON 5000 platform integrates SONET protection, frame and cell switching, Optical ADM capabilities.  Astral Point also features a fully distributed, mesh network topology discovery and bandwidth-management system, which the company says will reduce provisioning time to one tenth that of standard SONET provisioning. The platform leverages a "Self-Healing Mesh" algorithm to enable SONET-quality protection and restoration in mesh networks.
  

• In July, Astral Point raised $80 million in third round venture financing.

SILICON ACCESS NETWORKS RAISES $56 MILLION FOR 10 GBPS NETWORK PROCESSORS
Silicon Access Networks, a start-up based in San Jose, California, secured $56 million in third round venture funding.  The company is developing chipsets for next generation, 10 Gbps/OC192 layer 4+ switches, routers and Internet edge devices.  Investors include Soros Private Equity Partners, Pivotal Asset Management, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Comdisco Ventures, the Intel Communication Fund, Norwest Venture Partners, the Raza Venture Fund, the Sprout Group, Synopsys and Tallwood Venture Capital.  http://www.siliconaccess.com
Silicon Access Networks, October 3, 2000

XILINX TO ACQUIRE ROCKETCHIPS FOR ITS ULTRA-HIGH-SPEED CMOS TRANSCEIVERS
Xilinx agreed to acquire RocketChips, a start-up developing ultra-high-speed CMOS mixed-signal transceivers.  Financial terms were not disclosed.  Xilinx said recent breakthroughs in CMOS circuit design and modeling have enabled next-generation serial transceivers to be constructed using standard CMOS processes, thereby dramatically lowering power levels and at the same time enabling integration into large-scale high-integration CMOS devices such as FPGAs. Xilinx is a leading provider of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).  http://www.xilinx.com/prs_rls/rocketchips.htm
http://www.rocketchips.com
Xilinx, October 3, 2000

• RocketChips was founded in January 1997 by Dr. Bernard L. Grung and Raymond R. Johnson, both of whom previously served with Honeywell.  The company is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and has IC design centers in Ames, Iowa and Austin, Texas.  

WAVESPLITTER RAISES $51 MILLION FOR ITS OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS
WaveSplitter Technologies, a developer of optical amplifier and DWDM systems, raised $51 million in new equity financing.  Investors include Thomas Weisel Capital Partners, J. & W. Seligman & Co., Corvis, NEC Corporation, Kalkhoven Pettit Levin Ventures, Mayfield Funds, China Development Industrial Bank, NIF Ventures and Star Ventures.
http://www.wavesplitter.com/WhatsNew/2000/10-3-2000EQ.htm
WaveSplitter, October 3, 2000

• WaveSplitter offers a range of optical amplifier products for long-haul, metro and access networks.  The company recently began a second product development initiative based on planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technology.  WaveSplitter was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.