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April 26, 1999

Compaq Pushes DSL Hardware And Software

t's no surprise that Compaq--as well as other PC vendors--is interested in Digital Subscriber Line technology. With a bigger pipe, you need faster hardware, and Compaq has taken the lead by developing client-side DSL hardware and software for its Presario PCs running Microsoft Windows. But Compaq, along with the rest of the industry, is also waiting for the Universal Asymmetrical DSL (UADSL) standard to reach fruition so it can take advantage of the UADSL standards that promise plug-and-play operation for consumers.

"We're still working on end-to-end interoperability with the telcos," says Dave Dorsey, Compaq's manager of technology strategy for the consumer market. To make DSL fly, installation and configuration need to be at least as easy as existing analog modems. Users have to know what they need to do to get service, and the configuration process needs to be automatic. That means being able to hand users a diskette or CD-ROM, or point them to a Web download that can automate the configuration of DSL parameters and the Internet service provider connection.

To that end, Compaq has developed a Network Driver Interface Specification DSL driver and a broadband installer wizard to help automate installation on the PC and hide the lower-level details of asynchronous transfer mode, which will carry DSL traffic between the central office and the user. The higher-level connection between the user and the central office will use either the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) or Ethernet frames over ATM.

If the connection uses PPP, the ADSL driver will appear as just another dial-up adapter in the Windows Network Control Panel. If the connection uses Ethernet frames over ATM, the driver will look like another LAN adapter card.

Compaq now offers two PCI cards for DSL connectivity. Compaq's 1.5-Mbit Max Digital Modem (see story, "InternetView: Universal ADSL Slow To Start"), a combination V.90 analog and UADSL modem on a PCI card that uses Lucent Technologies' Wildwire chipset, was announced back in November and is bundled on select Presario systems.

A newer modem, the 6.0-Mbit Max Digital Modem, was unveiled in February and adds $99 to the cost of Compaq Presario 5600 PCs. The modem uses Alcatel's Dynamite chipset and will support G.DMT (G.992.1), as well as UADSL and V.90.

Both cards are shipping now, but neither can be used for DSL yet because the firmware is not in place. Compaq expects to support both cards by year's end, and users will be able to upgrade their modems for DSL use by downloading firmware upgrades from Compaq's Web site.

Return to main story, "DSL Comes Together."