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Infineon Raises the Standards for Voice-over-IP Systems with New High-Integration Digital Phone Handset IC

Infineon Announces First Design Win

The manufacturer says . . .

Chipcenter's Jon Gabay says . . .

Munich, Germany ý December 11, 2002 ý Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX), a leading provider of integrated circuits (ICs) for advanced communications systems, today introduced a single-chip solution for Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephones. The new INCA-IP chip meets IP phone manufacturerýs requirements for integrated conferencing, hands-free functionality and high-quality audio performance. It also is the first VoIP system chip to integrate hardware-accelerated encryption, enabling advanced network security support in IP phones. Infineon also announced that Siemens ICN, a leading provider of real time communications to telecommunications and business markets, will use the INCA-IP for its IP telephone product line in future. ýCommunication over IP (CoIP) is changing the way businesses communicate by combining the features of traditional business phones with the benefits of data networking technology,ý said Dieter Hecker, Vice President of Communication Clients & Devices at Siemens ICN. ýWith HiPath Siemens is building on its leadership in real time communications. Today's companies want to reduce communication costs and optimize processes ý good reasons to opt for CoIP. Infineonýs INCA-IP solution brings us added flexibility and advanced features to meet customer Quality of Service requirements and reduce total system cost for toll-grade quality CoIP terminals.ý VoIP technology converts voice calls into packets of data for transmission using Internet Protocol. By treating voice calls as just another type of data on the network, manufacturers can design systems with capabilities such as advanced messaging and call forwarding to automatically follow individual users to different phone terminals. These and other ýintelligent phoneý features are fueling steady market growth. According to market forecasts by In-Stat/MDR, shipments of IP phones in just the United States will grow from approximately one million units in 2001 to nearly three million in 2006. VoIP also presents challenges in managing the voice quality at the terminal and assuring that the voice packets are recognized for priority handling and transportation across packet-switched networks. Infineonýs INCA-IP chip integrates advanced features to manage both tasks, such as integrated voice codecs, advanced echo cancellation, and voice packet prioritization. VoIP technology also makes the telephone a networked computing device, so the INCA-IP chip includes hardware support for the DES, 3DES and AES encryption algorithms needed to protect the IP phone network from ýhackingý attacks. ýWe are very pleased that the INCA-IP chip has already been selected by a global leader of real time communications. INCA-IP provides a solid platform in a growing market and raises the standard for performance by bringing security to the IP telephony market,ý said Christian Wolff, Vice President of Infineonýs Wireline Communications Business Group and General Manager of the Access Business Unit. ýDigital voice terminals require tight integration of analog phone expertise and digital design to achieve excellent voice quality, and high-volume manufacturing capability to optimize cost. With our long history as a leading supplier of telephony IC solutions, Infineon is strongly positioned to lead this emerging market segment.ý About INCA-IP Designed for IP phone systems with hands-free microphone, conference loudspeaker, handset and headset inputs, the INCA-IP has a fully integrated Analog Front End and Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to handle all standard phone functions. An on-board 32-bit MIPSý processor controls the phone operation and supports all software applications for the phoneýs features. The chip integrates complete Ethernet/ Fast Ethernet capability for plug-in directly into a network connection and support for new wireless phone headsets. The INCA-IP is fully compliant with the IEEE standard ýPower over LANý and ITU standard voice coding techniques ý including G.711, G.723, G.729 A/B and G.722 ý for IP phone applications, as well as advanced telephony features such as Caller-ID and speech recognition. The chip can be used in both SIP and H.323 ýreadyý terminals and is fully compliant with the voice packet prioritization and port grouping VLAN standards (802.1Q and 802.1p). The INCA-IP comes in an P-LBGA-324-3 package and is available now at sample quantity pricing of $25. System evaluation boards and toolkits to support software application development also are available. More information, including a product brief, is available on the web at www.infineon.com/inca-ip. About Infineon Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for the automotive and industrial sectors, for applications in the wired communications markets, secure mobile solutions as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In the fiscal year 2002 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 5.21 billion with about 30,400 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

Chip or Get Off The POTS Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS) still dominate the world of telephony. The simple make/break contacts or DTMF signaling is the only 'protocol' needed to make it work. A telco-induced dial tone provides verification of connection and integrity. If only IP phones could be so simple. While VoIP has been around for a long time, it hasn't taken off as a cost-effective alternative to POTS. This is primarily due to three reasons. The first is that not enough people have high-speed access to the Internet. Although, this number is growing and will reach a critical marketing mass when there are enough potential customers to venture forth with new and comprehensive services. The second reason is that the infrastructure is not set up to handle the traffic in a time effective way. The Quality of Service (QoS) is not refined to the point where it is preserved across the vast divide from point to point. This is being addressed and many CO/ISP provider boxes and line cards now can do a pretty good job at that. The third is integration. VoIP phones are pretty complex and require many functions to be effectively integrated. As with any emerging technology, its feasibility has been demonstrated with pioneering but costly designs. So now comes the fun part - integrated low cost solutions. I like all the features packed into the new INCA-IP (PSB 21553 E) chip from Infineon. This seems to be a well thought out design, optimized for low cost. Supporting its primary function as a VoIP terminal, it has interfaces to microphone, loudspeaker, handset and headset input supporting conferencing as well as hands-free functionality in Full Duplex. It also supports new wireless phone headsets. This is performed by the integrated Analog Front End (AFE) and Digital Signal Processor (DSP). These also handle standard telephony features, including filtering and tone generation. The internal codecs comply with main standards like G.711, G.723.1, G.729 A/B, and G.722. I also like the echo cancellation built in for the handset. This helps assure higher quality audio performance. The IP side is pretty robust as well and features full on-chip access for network connectivity and transport management across packet-switched networks. QOS is aided by voice packet prioritization and port grouping VLAN standards (802.1Q and 802.1p), and performance is enhanced with the integrated hardware accelerator for encryption. Standards supported are DES, Triple DES, and AES. I like the integrated 3 port Ethernet switch. You don't want multiple networking wires going to every location. With the integrated 3 port switch, a single connection to the LAN allows the VoIP phone and the local computer to co-exist happily. I really like that 2 of them have integrated 10/100 PHY's and MAC's. The embedded 150 MHz MIPS32 4KcTM RISC CPU is sufficient to handle the tasks without eating up too much power. The integrated 4K-instruction cache and 4K-data cache, coupled with SDRAM and cache controller, allow easy memory connection and utilization. There's even an I squared C port for display driving and direct keypad support for up to 91 keys. For developers, system evaluation boards and toolkits are in place to support software application development. The INCA-IP comes in an P-LBGA-324-3 package and is available now at sample quantities. Target pricing of $25 is still a lot higher than a $5 POTS phone, but, the hope is that advanced features like Caller-ID, speech recognition advanced messaging and call forwarding (to automatically follow individual users to different phone terminals), will drive sales and use. The proof is in the pudding though and I've used equipment that claims to be SIP and H.323 ready, but still doesn't play nice on a network. User knowledge and configuration responsibility is a lot higher with VoIP phones than with just a plug and go POTS line phones. Firewalls, NAT setup (Network Address Translation), IP Forwarding, and other server related issues will have to be in place on the network to make this technology feasible. I hope to be able to review this eval board in a future write-up to document it's performance, comprehensiveness, and development environment. Stay tuned...

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