[Asterisk-Users] Port density: DS3 cards?

[Andy Hester]

>
> 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
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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