Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: Zarlink Semiconductor | Subject: ZL50233/4/5 VEC chips
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 28 March 2003
Voice echo cancellers tap surging Asian
markets
Zarlink has strengthened its business in Asia with the launch of three new VEC chips that meet the performance and cost requirements of the booming market for PHS fixed-wireless telephone equipment.
Zarlink Semiconductor has strengthened its growing business in Asia with the launch of three new VEC chips that meet the performance and cost requirements of the booming market for PHS fixed-wireless telephone equipment PHS is a "microcellular" standard defined by Japan's NTT for sending voice calls, faxes, and modem signals over short, high-speed radio links
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 7 Feb 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Packet processor for broadband networks
Mitel Semiconductor has introduced the world's highest density AAL2 segmentation and re-assembly (SAR) device.
Quality of service is key to Gigabit Ethernet ICs
The MVTX2800 family of Gigabit Ethernet switching ICs from Zarlink Semiconductor deliver full-wire speed forwarding and leading quality of service features to metropolitan optical access equipment.
Fixed-wireless PHS networks - also known as "wireless local loop" systems - transmit RF (radio frequency) signals from a network operator's "central office" to a rooftop antenna at the customer's location.
The calls are passed to a PHS basestation, which sends them to customers over wired or cordless in-building phone systems.
China, Japan and other countries are rapidly deploying PHS wireless local loop systems as an alternative to more costly, wired telephone networks.
Further reading
Chipset saves space, cuts costs for TDMA handsets
Zarlink Semiconductor has announced a new highly integrated RF chipset for cellular handsets operating in dual-mode TDMA/AMPS networks.
First AAL1 device to perform on-chip ATM switching
Zarlink Semiconductor claims the MT90503 is the industry's highest density AAL1 segmentation and reassembly (SAR) chip for TDM to ATM conversion.
Ultra-low-power process aims for low-voltage SoCs
Zarlink Semiconductor has expanded its foundry services with a new ultra-low-power analogue nonvolatile 0.35-micron CMOS process optimised for low-voltage (1V) and low-power applications.
In China, for example, network operators have in the past few years signed up more than 10 million PHS customers.
Four leading equipment manufacturers in Asia have already selected Zarlink's new ZLTM50233/4/5 VEC chips for use in PHS basestations in China and Japan.
Zarlink's chips improve the quality of voice calls carried over the base stations by removing echoes, clicks, and hisses from the line.
The company's MT9126 voice compression chip is also being used in PHS basestations.
"Zarlink's newest VEC chips are designed and priced for equipment, such as PHS basestations, that carry low densities of voice traffic", said Goutam Mukherjee, Product Line Manager, Voice Processing, Zarlink Semiconductor.
"The hardwired, dedicated VEC algorithm in our ZL50233/4/5 devices delivers better voice quality and is easier to use than chips based on DSP technology".
Zarlink's ZL50233/4/5 carrier-class VECs cancel echoes lasting up to 64ms in four, eight, and 16 voice channels, respectively.
The chips can also be configured to eliminate echoes of up to 128ms.
The VEC chips deliver excellent-sounding voice connections by removing echoes, clicks, and hisses caused by network noise and round-trip delays in speech signals.
These high-quality connections are achieved, in part, by Zarlink's patented NLP (non-linear processing) technology.
For example, this advanced VEC technology improves voice quality by adjusting "comfort noise" to match caller background noise, so that the line does not sound "dead" when echoes are cancelled.
In 2002, AT and T's Voice Quality Assessment Lab, a world-leading independent test facility, reported that Zarlink's NLP technology passed all 19 tests for carrier-class performance, including subjective listening evaluations of voice quality.
Zarlink's ZL50233/4/5 comply fully with ITU-T's G.168 (2000) standard for digital echo cancellers, and G.165 standard for fax/modem transmissions.
In addition to fixed-wireless PHS basestations, Zarlink's new VECs are targeted at PHS basestations for mobile phone services.
In this application, the VECs can be used in conjunction with the company's MT9173/74 digital line interface circuits.
The ZL50233/4/5 VECs are also suitable for low-density wireless equipment based on other standards, such as DECT, as well as for PBX systems, central office echo cancellation pools, and audio conferencing systems.
Zarlink's low-density VEC series is now in production.
The chips are offered in 100-pin LQFP or 208-pin LBGA packages.
In 10,000 quantities, the four-channel ZL50233 is priced at US$13.84, the eight-channel ZL50234 at US$22.49, and the 16-channel ZL50235 at US$34.60.
An evaluation board is available for all three devices.
• Zarlink Semiconductor: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
