Gateway platform accelerates broadband designs

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Feb 19, 2003

The S3C2500-RGP is a complete reference system for designers of residential gateways, SOHO networks, Internet attached devices and convergence equipment.

Arcturus Networks and Samsung Electronics today announced availability of the S3C2500-RGP, a complete reference system for designers of residential gateways (RGs), SOHO networks, Internet attached devices (IADs) and convergence equipment.

The two companies have partnered to deliver a platform that is the first to offer a truly end-to-end approach to RG product development including base hardware with extensible modules, royalty-free Linux core operating system and optional firmware suites to enhance product functionality, while expediting product designs and keeping development risk low.

Home networking equipment developers are increasingly driven to reduce platform costs in order to remain viable in a highly competitive market.

However, current reference solutions are either based on proprietary and cost-prohibitive operating systems, expensive hardware devices or are limited in their depth of functionality and ease of customization.

"Unlike traditional evaluation or development boards, our platform is an entire development system", said D Jeff Dionne CEO, of Arcturus Networks.

"Together with Samsung, we recognize that the leading home networking equipment companies need to expedite their product designs, and we now provide everything they require to enhance their specific product functionality, while controlling their design costs and development risks".

The S3C2500-RGP can serve as the base platform for entire product families, from entry-level routers and firewalls to secure virtual private networks (VPNs), voice over IP, and virtual office devices.

The platform is built on Samsung ARM940 S3C2500 and is powered by the royalty-free uClinux operating system.

It also includes: fast hardware accelerated encryption, USB device, multiport Ethernet, high-speed serial, HDLC and PCMCIA.

Optional support is available for WiFi, WiFi/WAP, multiport DSP-voice and SmartCard VPN authentication, as well as firmware suites to enable security, telephony and device management.

Samsung's S3C2500 32bit RISC microcontroller is a cost-effective, high-performance microcontroller solution for Ethernet-based systems, such as RGs, SOHO routers, Internet gateway, and WLANs.

A variety of communication-specific features are embedded into the S3C2500 including two Ethernet MACs, three HDLCs, two high speed UARTs, USB and hardware DES/3DES accelerator.

"Our highly integrated microcontroller is designed specifically for developers of advanced networking equipment and it enables our customers to save system costs and increase performance over other 32bit microcontrollers", said Dong-Eun 'Chris' Chang, Vice-President System Solutions, Samsung Electronics.

"Our partnership with Arcturus now delivers our customers the most robust end-to-end reference platform for fast time-to-market solutions".

The S3C2500-RGP may be ordered immediately from Samsung or Arcturus based on a one-time fee plus a firmware suite royalty.