[Asterisk-Users] Port density: DS3 cards?

[John Todd]

At 10:42 AM -0600 12/5/03, Andy Hester wrote:
>
>>  >
>>  >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
>
>I talked to Imagestream this morning about the possibilites.  Their lead
>engineer said that there would be no way to do voice over their DS-3 cards
>using software processing because it would take too much processing power.
>It would be possible to do some custom design for their boards that
>incorpotates hardware processing, but he doesn't know of anything currently
>available.  So unless there's something I/he missed, I guess the answer is
>no on the DS-3.
>
>Andy

I have no reason to disbelieve this report, but I will offer some 
minor scepticism at this reply.  A well-equipped PC can currently 
handle 8 T1 channels, and it seems that only the IRQ issue is causing 
more channels to not be viable in the current TE410P environment.  It 
would seem reasonable to think that a very well equipped PC (4-way, 
8-way?) would be able to handle the "processing power" requirements 
of a DS3, whatever was meant by that statement.  Of course, there may 
be other underlying issues specific to ImageStream that make this 
impossible; I don't know.

JT