TranSwitch announces Industry’s Most Flexible Programmable Silicon Platform for Access Applications

Taurus Platform brings unprecedented flexibility to Access Applications

SHELTON, CT –May 12, 2008 – TranSwitch® Corporation, a leading provider of carrier-class semiconductor solutions for the converging voice, data and video network, today announces a family of flexible programmable silicon platforms.

The first platform, Taurus, which is targeted for access applications, provides programmability, flexibility and cost effectiveness unsurpassed in the market. Taurus includes a targeted set of access interfaces, including GPON, Ethernet, and POTS/TDM. The product includes two RISC processors in the data plane along with a configurable buffer manager and a carrier-grade traffic manager. Control plane functions are performed by two MIPS processors. The combination of data plane processors and control plane processors along with the hardware, can be programmed for multiple applications and would allow customers not only to customize and differentiate their products but also to upgrade functions and features.

The Taurus Platform will be the basis for a series of GPON ONU solutions for SFU (single family unit), SBU (small business unit), MDU (multiple dwelling unit) and MTU (multiple tenant unit) applications with different firmware/software loads. The SFU solution is planned to be available in Q3 of this year. All the GPON product offerings will include appropriate application firmware and software to ensure that our customers' time to market is accelerated.

The Taurus Platform will also be used to create a variety of programmable Carrier Ethernet solutions for access and CLE applications. The first of these Carrier Ethernet Products based on the Taurus platform is a programmable NID (Network Interface Device). Like all Platform based products, the NID product offering will include the hardware, software and firmware as a complete solution.

Future access products from TranSwitch will all be based on similar programmable Platforms, Taurus being the first of a series planned for introduction starting Q3 of 2008. Subsequent Platforms will be targeting different market segments and provide higher performance and more flexibility.

“We believe the TranSwitch Platform approach will create a paradigm shift in the industry. Our solution surpasses flexibility and programmability provided by competitive architectures like FPGA and NPUs. Our Platform approach implements most of the functions and features of the target application in software - as opposed to the current approach of a combination of hardware and software”, commented Dr. Marco Heddes, VP Platform Products for TranSwitch corporation.