[Asterisk-Users] Port density: DS3 cards?

[John Todd]

At 8:47 PM -0600 12/4/03, Andy Hester wrote:
>
>  > The data-only cards for DS3 seem to be in the "reasonable" price
>>  range, though I have _no_ idea if they could be turned into
>>  TDM-capable cards.  Examples that were shown to me:
>>
>>  http://oem.imagestream.com/PCI_720.html
>>  http://www.ace-electronics.com/Hardware/T1E1J1/wanPCI-1T3.html
>>
>>  A little more time with Google perhaps would discover other
>>  solutions.  These are, from what I gather, very inexpensive devices
>>  in the grand scheme of things, and I believe some already offer Linux
>>  drivers (though no mention of open source that I could find, I
>>  imagine that these companies will be all over opening up more markets
>>  for their cards.)
>>
>>  Of course, Digium could keep it's leadership and our (collective)
>>  money by starting to poke around at such a driver or card.  It's
>>  really a chicken-egg situation: nobody will want to muck with driver
>>  authorship or card production until there are buyers, and there won't
>>  be any buyers of such "experimental" technology unless it's cheap to
>>  experiment with, just like the T100P cards are.  Open source is still
>>  scary to bell-heads, and they will resist until they actually see
>>  (with their own eyes) a working system that replaces their $100k
>>  CisNorSiemAvaytelensaco boxes with a $7k PC/card combination.  Even
>>  then, it's still an uphill battle, but at least it's a battle,
>>  whereas right now it's a complete non-starter to open one's mouth
>>  about open source telephony gatewaying at truly large scale
>>  installations.  And, to be honest, the telco guys are correct at this
>>  moment.
>>
>  > JT
>
>I have been mulling over what it would take to get drivers done for
>ImageStream's products.  They have a component architecture that is supposed
>to reduce development time/cost.  The component stuff is open source.  The
>part of the driver that you have to write can be open source or proprietary.
>I am not much of a coder, but someone more knowledgeable may be able to do
>it without too much trouble.  I am an ImageStream reseller - if you need
>hardware I'll give you good pricing. ;)
>
>Andy


Shoot, set me up with <takes off shoes for counting> 42 2u servers 
with dual TE410P boards, and then 12 M13 muxes, and then 1 12-port 
DS3-to-OC12 mux (or 3 DS3-to-OC3 muxes, and one 3 port OC3-to-OC12 
mux) and we can even test one of those OC12 boards that ImageStream 
sells!

Why don't you ping someone at ImageStream and see if they're willing 
to offer a DS3 developer kit for some interval (6 months? 8 months?) 
to a developer if they show appropriate interest and expertise. 
Anyone want to volunteer?

Actually, I'd ask a senior developer at ImageStream to see if they 
think it's even possible first; they'll at least be able to say if 
it's in the realm of sanity.  You have the inside track; let us know 
what you hear.

JT