[Asterisk-Users] Dialogic

[Steven Critchfield]

On Sun, 2004-10-31 at 15:26 -0500, Jim Van Meggelen wrote:
> asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com wrote:
> > Robin van Leyden wrote:
> >> 
> >> Does any body have any information about Dialogic MSI board workink
> >> with asterisk.
> > 
> > According to this document the MSI model is not supported:
> > http://www.asteriskpbx.org/index.php?> menu=hardware
> > 
> > 
> > Keep in
> > mind that the Dialogic drivers for
> > Asterisk are closed source
> > and cost money.  
> 
> This is because Digium does not control the relevant APIs - those have
> to be licensed from Intel.
> 
> > Contect Digium for details, of course.
> 
> Anyone can contect Intel directly and license an API for Dialogic cards.
> >From there, one can build their own Dialogic driver for Asterisk (or
> Zapata), and not involve Digium at all. But hiring Digium to do this
> would be good advice -- given that they know the most about Asterisk,
> and have already done much of the necessary work -- it is not a
> requirement.
> 
> It is important to remember that Digium releases their source code;
> Intel does not. It's a pretty safe bet that Intel won't be giving Digium
> permission to release the Dialogic drivers or API under the GPL.

Exactly, That is why Digium charges money for the closed source channel
driver to connect to the Dialogic drivers. Digium had to sign a NDA to
get the driver information. Downside of Dialogic hardware is you won't
be as free to upgrade at will to the newest CVS versions of asterisk and
you will be using a less tested channel driver. 
-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>