Vocal Technologies puts ATAs in bargain bin

Vocal Technologies said it has developed an analog telephone adapter and software reference design platform that brings the bill of goods costs of the product down to less than $10 per unit.

Vocal, which previously had created and sold protocol stacks for products as diverse as dial-up modems and SIP phones, said its design in fact can bring the cost of ATAs, which are used by companies like Vonage to convert voice over broadband lines, to $6. The key is the design’s use of a single digital signal processor, according to Victor Demjanenko, chief technology officer for Vocal. Other designs typically signal processing from other functions and require two DSPs, thereby raising the cost.

"There’s really no good reason to split that across two processors," Demjanenko said. "What’s made this possible is the latest generation of DSPs. Those were designed to do control applications rather well."

Additionally, the company’s protocol requires about one-sixth the memory of traditional solutions, he said. The end result is a product design that will allow Internet service providers to get into the business with significantly less upfront cost.

The 2x2+1 design will support up to two voice lines, two Ethernet ports and a PSTN life-line port. It also is designed to conform with the SIP protocol. And while the company is playing the low-cost card as the consumer VoIP just begins to take off, Vocal also is marketing the independent code base that allows it to be customized as new services are added.