Texas Instruments technology and innovation spurs new era of multimedia-rich features and applications for the next-generation of IP phones

With the communications industry on the cusp of a significant shift in the IP phone user experience, TI envisions ergonomically designed, wired and wireless, low-power devices that offer colorful 3-D graphical displays that quickly connect users to Web-based applications with a simple touch of a screen, making their work experience easier, faster, greener and more personalized. Advanced application developers enabled by open software platforms from TI, will create innovative tools that allow enterprises to seamlessly access customer data, manage real-time communications or simply check calendar appointments all on a single converged device. IP phone users will also have an opportunity to experience unparalleled lifelike voice quality with high definition voice capabilities, bringing their customers and partners closer together.

“In addition to the IP phones that are being widely deployed in enterprises today, the next-generation of unified communications devices will break down roadblocks by empowering people with an intuitive and graphical way of choosing when, how and where they wish to communicate,” said Aileen Arcilla, senior research analyst, IDC. “An interactive multimedia IP phone with easy-to-use features is something many enterprise users have sought for a long time, and represents an exciting growth opportunity for companies that play in the VoIP semiconductor space.

TI’s next-generation IP phone platform, the TNETV107x family, will include TI’s powerful TMS320C64x+TM digital signal processor (DSP) and take advantage of a wide-range of TI silicon and software solutions to allow equipment manufacturers to develop a broad portfolio of BOM (bill of materials) optimized IP phones, ranging from reduced cost phones to full featured executive IP phones. TI is also making available its Modular Open Voice Engine (MOVE) software, a highly optimized system software architecture that meets next-generation processing requirements for a broad range of IP-enabled devices utilizing a field-proven voice engine. For IP phones, TI’s MOVE software equips customers with a powerful tool that allows them the option to add their own software in addition to what TI already provides. To best support the feature rich IP phones developed by OEMs, TI’s new IP phone family will leverage a 3D graphics accelerator for advanced GUI (Graphical User Interface) displays, low-power consumption, support for wideband voice, advanced networking and a portable and flexible software engine that is scalable across TI’s multimedia platforms.

“Understanding that enterprises require customizable IP phone solutions to meet specific market needs, TI has developed a next-generation IP phone platform that positions OEMs to take advantage of the quickly developing IP communications ecosystem, driven by TI’s DSP technology and MOVE software architecture,” said Fred Zimmerman, director of CPE solutions for TI's voice solutions business unit. “Leveraging more than 10 years of VoIP technology leadership, TI’s end-to-end IP quality management technology allows OEMs to deliver next-generation IP phones with the most trusted quality and reliability for voice and video applications.”

TI has shipped nearly over 850 million VoIP ports to date for the IP phone, customer premise equipment (CPE) gateway and high-density infrastructure markets.