AGILENT DEVELOPS LOW-POWER CMOS CHIP WITH 50 CHANNELS AT 2.5 GBPS
Agilent Technologies demonstrated an application-specific integrated-circuit (ASIC) test chip with over 50 embeded serializer/deserializer (SerDes) channels operating at 2.5 Gbps.  The current industry benchmark is four channels per chip.  Agilent said the technology could lead to significant savings in power, board space and cost, as well as reduce design complexity, for network switches and routers.  The device was created using low-power 0.18-micron CMOS technology, as opposed to bipolar technology often used for high-speed applications.  http://www.agilent.com
Agilent Technologies, October 4, 2000

BROADCOM TO ACQUIRE ELEMENT 14 FOR ITS DSL SILICON
Broadcom will acquire Element 14, a developer of DSL chipsets, for about $596 million (2.65 million BRCM shares).  Element 14 is developing a 12-port, full-rate ADSL solution for central office (CO) equipment, especially high-density DSLAMs and ADSL-enabled digital loop carriers (DLCs).  Element 14 is also developing silicon for symmetric DSL.  Following the acquisition, Broadcom will establish a new DSL business unit that will also encompass its VDSL and ADSL businesses and all related telco local loop transmission activities.  Element 14 has a team of 68 people and is based in the UK and Belgium.  http://www.broadcom.com/
Broadcom, October 4, 2000

• In February, seven of Alcatel’s senior DSL engineers joined Element 14. The company’s engineering group also includes the architect of the ARM processor and a leading processor design team from STmicroelectronics. 

NETSPEAK ADDS BILLING CAPABILITIES TO ITS IP TELEPHONY SOFTWARE
NetSpeak plans to augment is IP telephony software with IP billing capabilities from Belle Systems A/S.  By linking NetSpeak's iTEL platform with Belle's Internet Management System (IMS) the companies would allow operators with large global networks to route and control more calls through their own networks.  http://www.netspeak.com  http://www.bellesystems.com
NetSpeak, October 4, 2000

• NetSpeak’s product line includes an IP telephony Infrastructure Gatekeeper and a companion Route Server supporting public and private dialing plans according to ITU-T E.164 standards.
• iBasis, which operates the largest International Cisco powered network for Internet telephony, has lists both NetSpeak and Belle Systems' as strategic software suppliers.

iBASIS ANNOUNCES MAJOR VOIP NETWORK EXPANSION IN EUROPE
iBasis will triple the number of Internet Central Offices it operates in Europe.  The company currently exchanges its European Internet telephony traffic at hubs in London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.  iBasis plans new exchange points in Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Stockholm and Zurich by the end of the year.  iBasis is currently providing international services to 13 European carrier customers, including several tier-one providers.
http://www.ibasis.net/News/pr10022000.htm
iBasis, October 4, 2000

• For Q2, iBasis carried 119.4 million minutes of Internet telephony traffic, up 40% over Q1.  iBasis attributed its recent traffic growth to more than 20 new wholesale carrier customers using its backbone, including China Mobile, China Netcom, JITONG Communications, Concert, Telstra, and Mexican national carrier Protel. 

PSINET INVESTS IN REELPLAY – 1.3 TERABYTES OF ONLINE VIDEO STORAGE
PSINet Ventures made an equity investment in Reelplay.com, a site that specializes in hosting movie trailers and other B2B visual entertainment content.  Under the deal, PSINet would provide managed application services for Reelplay and its clients.  Financial terms were not disclosed.  Other investors include Softbank, Waterview Advisors and Sycamore Ventures.  http://www.psinet.com
PSINet, October 4, 2000

• Reelplay claims to have 1.3 Terabytes of online storage, enough to host half a million film and TV trailers, TV promotion reels, synopses, stills, credits and art.  The company operates as an advertiser-supported electronic product guide for buyers of commercial video.  http://www.reelplay.com

SIEMENS' OPTISPHERE TOPS DWDM RECORD AT 7.04 TBPS PER FIBER
Optisphere Networks, a subsidiary of Siemens Information and Communication Networks, claimed a new DWDM capacity record by transmitting 7.04 Tbps over a single fiber.  The laboratory demonstration carried 176 wavelengths at 40 Gbps with 50 GHz spacing over 50km over fiber.  The company said it used a special bi-directional transmission system to ensure a spectral efficiency of 0.8 bit/s per Hz bandwidth.  http://www.optisphere.com/
Optisphere, October 4, 2000

    Other recent DWDM capacity announcements:

• NEC -- 160 wavelengths at 40 Gbps for 6.4 Tbps, October 2000
• Alcatel -- 128 wavelengths at 40 Gbps for 5.12 Tbps, September 2000

AT&T LICENSES KEY OPTICAL SWITCHING TECHNOLOGY TO TELLIUM
AT&T agreed to license key intellectual property to Tellium for use in its Aurora/Full-Spectrum Optical Switch.  The licensed technology, which includes patents that may be implemented in both software and hardware, applies to Tellium's StarNet Operating System mesh restoration system.  The hardware implementations center around AT&T's pioneering work with optical switching components, including micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) devices.   As part of the agreement, AT&T receives a minor equity position in Tellium.  http://www.tellium.com
Tellium, October 4, 2000

CYOPTICS RAISES $57M FROM CISCO, CORNING, INTEL & VITESSE
CyOptics, a start-up developing optoelectronic transmission components for 40Gbps and ultra-long-haul transmission, received $57 million in new venture funding.  The money will be used to accelerate expansion of the company's manufacturing facilities and customer support infrastructure.  Investors include Cisco Systems, Corning, Intel Capital, Vitesse Semiconductor, Jerusalem Venture Partners, SCD, Soros Private Equity Partners LLC, Sprout Group, Innovacom, Natexis and Eurofund.  http://www.cyoptics.com/news/PR%20001004.htm
CyOptics, October 4, 2000

• In February, CyOptics introduced Indium Phosphide semiconductor technology for use in optical components for 40 Gbps and ultra-long-haul (ULH) 10 Gbps transmission systems.  CyOptics claims its patented Pulse Generating Laser (PGL) technology enables very high-speed and long-haul DWDM transmission by generating high power, short laser pulses.  The size and power drive requirements for PGL make it suitable for RZ (Return to Zero) and OTDM (Optical Time Domain Multiplexing) transmission systems.  CyOptics expects new methods of optically multiplexing data streams will make possible line speeds of 100 Gbps and higher.  
  
• CyOptics is led by Eran Yarkoni, who previously managed Intel's Pentium Processor product line, and Dr. Uzi Koren, who previously developed Electro-absorption Modulated Laser (EML) technology at Lucent's Bell Labs.  The company was spun out of the telecommunications group of SCD in early 1999.

MAPLE OPTICAL SYSTEMS SECURES $50 MILLION FOR ITS MPLS PLATFORM
Maple Optical Systems (formerly Maple Networks), a start-up based in San Jose, California, secured more than $50 million in second round venture funding.  Maple is developing an MPLS-based optical switching system.  Investors include Raza Ventures, Siemens AG, Amerindo Investment Advisors, Aurora Technology Fund, Technology Crossover Ventures, and McQuillan Ventures. The company recently expanded to Ottawa, Ontario.  http://www.mapleoptical.com/
Maple Optical Systems, October 4, 2000

• Maple's DWDM optical switches are being developed to encapsulate multiservice traffic into industry-standard frames and then to switch the traffic based on MPLS.  All cells/packets would be tagged with an MPLS header.  The switch fabric would perform tag lookups and switching at speeds of OC-192 and above.  The platform would interact with MPLS-aware routers to set up sessions with different QoS requirements.
  
• Maple was founded by Phanindra Jujjavarapu, formerly Director of Systems Software at Lucent/Ascend Communications; Sandip Chattopadhya, formerly Director of the Network Processor Division; Piyush Kothari, formerly CEO of Modulation Technologies, a manufacturer of SONET, GbE, and ATM testers; Ravi Manghirmalani, Prinicipal Engineer at Lucent/Ascend Communications; and Ashis Khan, a founder of Basis Communications (acquired by Intel).

NETSCALER BRINGS IN $35 MILLION INVESTMENT FOR ITS WEB TRANSACTION MGT
NetScaler, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, secured $35 million in venture funding.  The company is developing Internet infrastructure devices and applications based on its Web Transaction Management (WTM) architecture.  Investors include Goldman Sachs & Co., Bay Partners, Mellon Ventures, Gabriel Venture Partners and Credit Suisse First Boston.  http://www.netscaler.com
NetScaler, October 4, 2000

• NetScaler's Web Transaction Management promises to break the dependency between channels (TCP connections) and HTTP requests. The goal would be to enable Web transactions to flow freely across managed multi-server sessions.  WTM aims to eliminate the Internet persistence problem, where sequences of Web requests are bound to the specific channel and server established by the first request.  A whitepaper is available on the company's website.  http://www.netscaler.com/technology.html
• NetScaler's management team includes Michel Susai, who formerly led Internet infrastructure scalability products at Sun Microsystems; B.V. Jagadeesh, formerly a co-founder of Exodus Communications; and Rajiv Sinha, formerly with Harris, Lynx and Unisys.

ADVA OPTICAL NETWORKING ACQUIRE R&D TEAM FROM SIEMENS NORWAY
ADVA Optical Networking acquired the telecommunication research and development (R&D) team from Siemens Norway for Euro 6 million.  The group has 32 engineers specialized in SONET/SDH and ATM.  http://www.advaoptical.com
ADVA Optical, October 4, 2000

OPLINK RISES 87% IN IPO
Oplink Communications (Nasdaq:OPLK) rose 87% to close at 33 5/8 in an initial public offering of 13.7 million shares.  The company's portfolio of optical components include EDFAs, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexer/Demultiplexer modules and optical signal add/drop and switching devices.  Oplink is based in San Jose, California.   http://www.oplink.com
October 4, 2000