Cores, software work for VoIP

-- EDN, 12/7/2000

The Acappella family of cores and software from Improv Systems targets VoIP (voice-over-Internet Protocol) applications. Improv based Acappella on the company's PSA (programmable system architecture) and VLIW Jazz processor. The VPS core is soft Verilog RTL that you can map onto different processes; the cores are mapped onto 0.18-µm processes. Core support includes an integration kit with hardware and software interfaces for implementing the cores as stand-alone chips or as cores in integrated systems on chips. Software support includes a range of voice codecs, including G.711; G.723.1; G.726; G.728; G.729; and G.729 Annexes A, B, and E; as well as G.168 echo cancellation, call-progress tones, silence suppression, comfort-noise generation, and voice-activity detection.

The Acappella Home platform targets home-access devices, supporting four voice channels with an echo-cancellation tail length of 16 msec. Acappella IAD offers 16 channels of G.726 with 32-msec tail lengths. Acappella Gateway provides 180 channels of G.726 or 150 channels with 32-msec tail lengths.

The pricing model for the software is a one-time charge with annual updates for a 15% and no software royalties. Basic price is $100,000 for a multichannel voice-over-DSL system that incorporates G.711, G.726, G.168, and voice-activity detection. Each additional voice coder, such as for G.728, G.723.1, G.729, and G.729e, costs a one-time fee of $25,000. The hardware core also has a license fee and royalty.

Improv Systems, 1-978-927-0555, www.improvsys.com.

—by Nicholas Cravotta