Redback’s Siara Box Enters Trials

LAS VEGAS, NV -- Redback Networks Inc. http://www.redback.com is half way to completing the development of the ASICs it acquired when it bought Siara Systems, Light Reading has learned.
Rumors that Siara’s ASICs (application specific
integrated circuits) don’t work are unfounded, and a
beta version of the product is now being tested by
three carriers, according to a Light Reading
source.
That’s significant news. Ever since Redback bought
Siara for $4.3 billion, it has been dogged by rumors of
ASIC problems. The industry scuttlebutt had it that
the product would not ship until 2001.
However, according to a source close to the customer trials,
Siara is half way to completing its ASIC development.
Siara is said to be working on six ASICS. Three handle
TDM functions, the rest perform packet processing. The source says that Siara has completed three of the ASICs
already, and has beta versions of the product
incorporating the silicon in trials with three
service providers – one of which is Qwest http://www.qwest.com.
The description of the ASICs (three for TDM, three for packet processes) also provides a clue as to the function that the product will serve in carrier networks. Originally, Siara positioned it as a God box –-
with a slew of IP, ATM, DWDM, and Sonet capabilities.
It now appears that Siara is focusing on IP over
Sonet.
Progress on its ASICs is good news for Redback, but it could be
extremely bad news for its many competitors in the
multi-service provisioning platform market (see
Sonet Goes POP).
Many of them, including Chromatis Networks Inc.http://www.chromatis.com and Geyser Networks Inc. http://www.geysernetworks.com, are basing their
products on FPGA (field programmable gate arrays)
rather than harder to develop ASICs. FPGAs offer faster
time to market, but provide lower levels of
performance than ASIC-based products. By putting so
much of its products’ functionality into custom
silicon, Redback should be able to trounce its FPGA
competition in terms of performance.
Redback declined to comment.
By Stephen Saunders, US Editor, Light Reading
http://www.lightreading.com


