SUNNYVALE, CA - February 8, 2000 - Leading computing and communication companies today announced the formation of a special interest group to develop an open specification for a new and advanced PC communication riser card. The new riser provides a common architecture for analog modem, Ethernet, phoneline (HomePNA) and wireless networking, DSL, and audio functions.

Founding members of the Advanced Communications Riser Special Interest Group or ACRÔ SIG include 3Com, AMD, Acer Laboratories, Conexant, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, NVIDIA, PCTEL, Texas Instruments, and VIA Technologies. ACR SIG’s mission is to promote the development and introduction of simple, inexpensive communications and audio systems for the personal computing market segment.

The Advanced Communications Riser Specification defines a physical design and interfaces for multiple and varied communications and audio subsystem in PCs. The ACR interface combines several existing communications buses, and introduces a new, advanced communications bus answering industry demand for low-cost, high-performance communications peripherals. The ACR Specification supports modem, audio, Local Area Network (LAN), and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies. Provisions are also made for future wireless bus support. The ACR Specification enables riser-based broadband communications, networking peripheral and audio subsystem designs in an open-standards context. The ACR Specification 1.0 is planned for publication later this month.

"Numerous communications technologies are becoming standard features in next generation PCs. The market needs a cost effective way to integrate and consolidate these functions. The ACR Specification provides just that," said Bert McComas, founder of InQuest Market Research. "It enables the means to cost reduce or to enhance and accelerate audio and communications functions in whatever combination suits the OEM or the end user. Establishing an advanced open standard for riser cards results in an unprecedented opportunity for differentiation, flexibility and innovation."

"The new ACR specification provides the industry the necessary tools to develop interoperable products in an open and competitive environment," said Cyrus Namazi, chair of the ACR SIG and director of Business Development at AMD. "It is a testament to the coalition members that they have come together to deliver the next generation of PC communication standards."

The ACR Specification provides the following technology, cost and integration benefits:

The ACR interface and connector scheme provide the following key benefits:

"3Com supports efforts to simplify connectivity solutions for our customers," said Robert C. Suffern, vice president of research and development for 3Com's Personal Communications Division. "The Advanced Communications Riser specification addresses numerous key initiatives of 3Com, including broadband, wireless, audio and home networking."

"To balance next generation multiple network and audio requirements with cost-effective system design demands, ACR is needed as the open, industry-supported standard," said CL Tsai, vice president of System Products at Acer Laboratories, Inc. "As a major PC chipset supplier, ALi understands the importance of ACR, and is pleased to be on the committee defining and promoting this new open standard."

"The ACR Specification was developed to deliver on the promise of open standards for the next generation of PC communications," said Mike Johnson, vice president of the Advanced Architecture Lab at AMD. "AMD supports the efforts of the ACR special interest group to unify the industry behind this new specification. The ACR Specification enables lower cost of high-performance communications through integration and allows multiple generations of core logic and peripheral components without frequent architecture changes."

"The ACR riser initiative contributes to the extension of integrating broadband and networking functionality to the next generation of PCs," said Chee Kwan, division director of broadband and networking products for Conexant Systems, Inc., Personal Computing Division. "Conexant's Communication product portfolio emphasizes functional integration and we are excited to be part of the broad industry support as it extends the key elements of next generation communications for the end-user."

"Lucent Technologies applauds the goals of this special interest group," said Tony Grewe, director of strategy and business development. "We are particularly enthusiastic about the specification's focus - defining the interfaces that link users to various communications channels and networking functions through a single bus. This ease-of-connectivity benefit is just what the consumer and the communications industry needs."

"The biggest hurdle for adoption and implementation of new technologies has been inconsistent implementations. The ACR Specification provides a consistent user interface that will accelerate the adoption of next-generation PC communications," said Dan Vivoli, vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. "NVIDIA applauds the ACR SIG and its initiatives which are designed to enhance the PC platform. With our leadership in the graphics market, we are committed to deliver the next generation audio, communication and graphics technologies to all end-users."

"We believe that the adoption of this specification will speed the movement towards a higher level of motherboard integration," explained Peter Chen, CEO of PCTEL. "PCTEL's participation in the ACR SIG underscores our commitment to continued development of highly integrated broadband communications solutions for the personal computing market segment."

"The ACR initiative provides a flexible interface for next generation PCs and offers sufficient bandwidth to handle the growing demand for xDSL, home networking and wireless solutions," said Alan Hansford, vice president

marketing, SigmaTel. "We are pleased to support this initiative as it is an essential component in lowering the implementation cost of future broadband

components."

"Texas Instruments is excited to join other leading companies in helping create an innovative specification to simplify communications and audio systems for the personal computing market segment," said David Bartek, Director, Mixed Signal Data Communications, TI. "We believe that maintaining close design relationships with other computing and communications companies is key to being at the forefront of technology in today's fast-moving markets. TI's goal is to ease its customers' design challenge, and keep them on the leading-edge of technology."

"Many times, efforts to bring new technology into the PC platform run into difficulty because multiple vendors simultaneously try to introduce slightly different solutions to the same problem," said Dean Hays, Director of Marketing for VIA Technologies, Inc. "In this case the critical mass required for any one approach to become quickly and widely adopted is not achieved and customers and vendors both pay the price. However, when a number of key companies work together to create a standard, each company can then make unique contributions to quickly create better overall solutions to customer needs, which typically results in a much larger overall market for each company's products. VIA has always been a strong supporter of open industry standards and intends to support and promote the ACR effort in every way possible. This type of standard will significantly help VIA's systems customers to quickly reap the benefits of ACR in building more flexible and powerful systems."

The ACR Special Interest Group (ACR SIG) manages the development of the ACR Specification. The ACR SIG is an open, not-for-profit organization representing the microcomputer industry. ACR SIG membership is open to the microcomputer industry.

To become an ACR SIG member or for help in obtaining specifications and development materials about the ACR Specification, visit the ACR SIG Web site at http://www.acrsig.org.

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Copyright © 2000 Advanced Communication Riser SIG.   Last modified on May 05, 2000