Telebit
Encyclopedia
Telebit was a US
-based modem
manufacturer, most notable for their TrailBlazer series of high-speed modems. One of the first modems to routinely exceed 9600 bit/s speeds, the TrailBlazer used a proprietary modulation scheme that proved highly resilient to interference, earning the product an almost legendary reputation for reliability despite mediocre (or worse) line quality. They were particularly common in Unix
installations in the 1980s and 90s.
Telebit was originally founded by Paul Baran
, one of the inventors of the packet switching
networking concept. Baran had recently started a networking company known as Packet Technologies on Bubb Road in Cupertino, California
, which was working on systems for interactive television. While working there, he hit on the idea for a new way to implement high-speed modems, and started Telebit across the street. Packet Technologies was a major beta customer for Telebit in late 1985. Packet Technologies later failed, and several of their employees were folded into Telebit, while most of the others formed StrataCom
, makers of the first Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM) switches.
, each modulated at 6 baud
, encoding 0, 2, 4 or 6 bit
s per interval. Under favorable conditions, the devices could reach data rates of 6 baud x 6 bits-per-baud x 512 carriers = 18432 bits per second. If a particular carrier was distorted, attenuated or interfered with, it could be turned off, allowing the data rate to degrade gracefully with decreasing line quality.
The Trailblazer's high data rate mode was available in one direction only. At a time when modems were actually pretty simple devices and used modulation techniques labelled either "full duplex" or "half duplex", the Trailblazer was termed internally an "adaptive duplex modem". The modem was designed to use most of the bandwidth in a single direction, with a relatively low speed reverse channel. The modems at the two ends of the connection would negotiate line turnarounds, reversing the directions of the high-speed and low-speed channels, based on the amount of data queued for transmission in each modem.
While this adaptive duplex scheme was able to send large files quickly, for users accustomed to having the distant computer echo characters, the delay associated with having the DSPs take turns using the bandwidth tended make interactive typing difficult, as there could be as much as a second and a half delay for a single character echo. This also caused problems for file transfer protocols, e.g., UUCP
'g' or Kermit, where a small packet of data was sent by one computer, followed by a wait for acknowledgment ("send and wait").
The TrailBlazer addressed this problem through a technique known as "protocol spoofing
". When the local computer sent a packet to the modem for transmission, the modem's controller immediately sent an ACK message generated locally. This fooled the computer into thinking the packet had already reached the far end, prompting it to send another packet. The error correction normally being applied in the protocol was instead handled using a proprietary replacement protocol operating on top of the MNP
error-correcting protocols to talk to the remote modem. In general, spoofing worked well with any protocol that used small packets, and thus generated lots of ACK messages; support for XModem
and Kermit
followed.
Support for these features did not come easily; the TrailBlazer Plus, for instance, used a Motorola 68000
to drive its electronics. This meant that the TrailBlazers were generally very expensive. However, its spoofing ability made the TrailBlazer modems extremely popular in the Unix
world, as it could dramatically improve UUCP throughput, even at low connection speeds on very noisy lines. Improvements of over 7 times faster than a 2400 bit/s modem were not uncommon. Sites that required long-distance telephone calls to exchange UUCP mail could pay for the price of a TrailBlazer in long-distance savings fairly quickly.
The Trailblazers also introduced an extensive set of commands for setting up its various options. While most of the simple commands were based on the Hayes command set
, like dialing a number or hanging up a phone, their proprietary capabilities were supported by proprietary commands and syntax. Most of these took the form of
In 1988 Telebit added the T1000, essentially a TrailBlazer limited to a lower-speed 9600 bit/s version of PEP, remaining compatible at that speed with existing TrailBlazers. The T2000 added support for synchronous
communications, typically used between mainframe computers.
dialup router, the NetBlazer. The product was developed by a team led by Mike Ballard, formerly of Packet, who eventually became Telebit's CEO in 1986, and president in 1992.
The NetBlazer essentially consisted of a small-form-factor PC
combined with custom software and one of a variety of modems or other connection systems (ISDN, etc.) combined into a large modem-like box. Users connected to it via Ethernet
, which was also used for maintenance commands and setup.
In its first release the NetBlazer's supported TCP/IP using SLIP
, but a later upgrade added Point-to-Point Protocol
(PPP) and support for IPX
and AppleTalk
.
The protocol stack was a commercially licensed version of KA9Q
. Later versions of the hardware switched from the Intel 80386
to a low-cost microcontroller
version of the Motorola 68030
, the MC68EN360.
The first multi-company standard for 9600 bit/s dialup modems was V.32, introduced in 1989. Initially V.32 modems were very expensive, but Rockwell
introduced modules and eventually chipsets that brought the prices down. Telebit first offered V.32 support in the T2500, which used the Trailblazer/T2000 hardware with the addition of the Rockwell V.32 modem module. A version without PEP support was offered as the T1500. The later T1600 had basically the same feature set as the T1500, but used Telebit's own V.32 implementation rather than the Rockwell module, resulting in reduced production cost and better performance. Both the T1500 and T1600 had list prices over $1000, although at the time a "1st tier" product from Hayes
or U.S. Robotics
generally cost about $700.
The V.32bis standard, increasing the bit rate to 14,400 bit/s, was introduced in 1991, and most modem vendors quickly responded with upgrades and new modems. A particularly "upsetting" change was Rockwell's decision to introduce a V.32bis chipset at a seriously reduced price point, allowing complete modems to be sold for about $300. All of the 1st tier companies, Hayes, USR and Telebit, had serious difficulties adapting quickly to a market that was now filled with low-cost modems with similar or better performance than their own "high-end" models. Telebit started slipping in terms of relative performance, while still trying to sell their products at their traditional high price points.
Telebit finally introduced the T3000 with V.32bis but without PEP, though a PEP upgrade was planned. Instead, Telebit "re-released" it in early 1994 as the $1,099 WorldBlazer model; essentially a T3000 with the new 23,000 bit/s TurboPEP mode. An upgrade from the T3000 to WorldBlazer was sold, consisting of two firmware ROM
s and a PAL
chip.
There were some design studies of a possible full-duplex PEP using echo cancellation
(as is used in V.32), and this technology was proposed to the CCITT (now known as the ITU-T
) for possible adoption as the V.fast modem standard. However, more conventional modem technology was chosen and standardized as V.34. Telebit deemed full-duplex PEP to require more engineering effort than was justified by the shrinking market for PEP modems, and never introduced this feature.
Telebit's modem engineering team developed a plan for a V.34 modem, but the executive staff believed that it was important to get a product to market more quickly. To that end, they began looking for other modem companies to acquire, and in January 1993 announce that Telebit would acquire Octocom Systems, a small privately held modem company in Massachusetts. Octocom had a V.34 modem in development which was expected to be ready for shipment quickly. Almost all modem engineering activities at Telebit's California offices ceased, though NetBlazer engineering continued to be based in California until the end of 1995.
The Telebit FastBlazer 8840 V.34 modem was introduced in May 1994. When the FastBlazer was first introduced it did not include V.34 support, with management stating that they couldn't do so because the standard was not yet ratified. Although this was true (for one month anyway, it was ratified in June), the FastBlazer did not ship with an interim standard either; even AT&T's largely ignored 19,200 bit/s v.32terbo would only be available as a post-release upgrade in July, there were no plans to support the widespread V.FC at all, and no date was set for full V.34 support other than "two or three months".
Making matters worse, the FastBlazer didn't include fax support, and while Telebit stated that an upgrade to add this would be available, they would be charging for it. Nor would the FastBlazer support PEP, which, although by then a minor consideration for most potential buyers, was still a differentiator for Telebit's existing installed base. For sites with a Telebit modem on at least one end of a link, a PEP-capable upgrade might be worthwhile. Without PEP, the FastBlazer had essentially no advantage over any other V.34 modem.
All this for an introductory price of $1,399, when V.32bis faxmodems were available for $200 or less, and industrial-quality V.34 designs were soon available for under $500.
It took seven months before Telebit introduced V.34 support in January 1995, also releasing the $399 TeleBlazer "low-end" model at the same time. By this point even long-time supporters were publicly pooh-poohing the company on the UseNet
, the medium that originally drove the widespread adoption of the TrailBlazer.
manufacturing capability, downsizing the existing Sunnyvale office to become a NetBlazer development site. The VP of Engineering quit in the spring, and the west-coast office was then closed.
As it turned out, the manufacturing costs at Octocom were actually higher than their original west-coast factory, and they failed to pay bills on time with one of their major component suppliers. New lines of credit were quickly arranged with various distributors, but this resulted in higher parts costs. This simply made matters worse, and by December 1995 it was publicly known that the company was up for sale.
In 1996 the bulk of their networking business were acquired by Cisco Systems
for $200M, primarily for their channelized T1 digital modem technology. The offer was unsolicited.. Cisco was uninterested in the analog modem side of the business which was spun off to the existing management team to become Telebit Incorporated.
In the summer of 1997 they merged with another small company, ITK Telekommunikation, which was purchased a year later in July 1998 by Digi International
, makers of the DigiBoard multi-port serial card for PCs. Digi was uninterested in the modem line, which was now hopelessly outdated, and immediately cancelled production. Remaining inventory was liquidated in March 1999.
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
(OFDM), which is used in both the ITU Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL) and IEEE 802.11
Wireless LAN standards, has some of its roots in the Packet Ensemble Protocol. In particular, these protocols reuse PEP's concept of carrying a single data link over many lower rate FDM
sub-carriers.
In 1995, a Silicon Valley
engineer sent a Worldblazer to an NGO
in Somalia
, which promptly put it to work connecting that remote country to the Internet
, at first by UUCP
, then by other means. (Now, faster connections are used, even in remote areas of the world.)
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-based modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
manufacturer, most notable for their TrailBlazer series of high-speed modems. One of the first modems to routinely exceed 9600 bit/s speeds, the TrailBlazer used a proprietary modulation scheme that proved highly resilient to interference, earning the product an almost legendary reputation for reliability despite mediocre (or worse) line quality. They were particularly common in Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
installations in the 1980s and 90s.
Telebit was originally founded by Paul Baran
Paul Baran
Paul Baran was a Polish American engineer who was a pioneer in the development of computer networks.He invented packet switching techniques, and went on to start several companies and develop other technologies that are an essential part of the Internet and other modern digital...
, one of the inventors of the packet switching
Packet switching
Packet switching is a digital networking communications method that groups all transmitted data – regardless of content, type, or structure – into suitably sized blocks, called packets. Packet switching features delivery of variable-bit-rate data streams over a shared network...
networking concept. Baran had recently started a networking company known as Packet Technologies on Bubb Road in Cupertino, California
Cupertino, California
Cupertino is an affluent suburban city in Santa Clara County, California in the U.S., directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 58,302 at the time of the 2010 census. Forbes...
, which was working on systems for interactive television. While working there, he hit on the idea for a new way to implement high-speed modems, and started Telebit across the street. Packet Technologies was a major beta customer for Telebit in late 1985. Packet Technologies later failed, and several of their employees were folded into Telebit, while most of the others formed StrataCom
StrataCom
StrataCom, Inc. was founded in Cupertino, California, USA, in January 1986 by 26 former employees of the failing Packet Technologies, Inc. StrataCom produced the first commercial cell switch, also known as a fast-packet switch. Its product was the working proof of the technology which became...
, makers of the first Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
(ATM) switches.
PEP and the TrailBlazer
In contrast to then-existing ITU V-series protocols, notably the common 2400 bit/s V.22bis, the TrailBlazers' proprietary PEP (Packet Ensemble Protocol) modulation employed a large number (initially up to 512) of closely spaced carrier frequenciesCarrier wave
In telecommunications, a carrier wave or carrier is a waveform that is modulated with an input signal for the purpose of conveying information. This carrier wave is usually a much higher frequency than the input signal...
, each modulated at 6 baud
Baud
In telecommunications and electronics, baud is synonymous to symbols per second or pulses per second. It is the unit of symbol rate, also known as baud rate or modulation rate; the number of distinct symbol changes made to the transmission medium per second in a digitally modulated signal or a...
, encoding 0, 2, 4 or 6 bit
Bit
A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states...
s per interval. Under favorable conditions, the devices could reach data rates of 6 baud x 6 bits-per-baud x 512 carriers = 18432 bits per second. If a particular carrier was distorted, attenuated or interfered with, it could be turned off, allowing the data rate to degrade gracefully with decreasing line quality.
The Trailblazer's high data rate mode was available in one direction only. At a time when modems were actually pretty simple devices and used modulation techniques labelled either "full duplex" or "half duplex", the Trailblazer was termed internally an "adaptive duplex modem". The modem was designed to use most of the bandwidth in a single direction, with a relatively low speed reverse channel. The modems at the two ends of the connection would negotiate line turnarounds, reversing the directions of the high-speed and low-speed channels, based on the amount of data queued for transmission in each modem.
While this adaptive duplex scheme was able to send large files quickly, for users accustomed to having the distant computer echo characters, the delay associated with having the DSPs take turns using the bandwidth tended make interactive typing difficult, as there could be as much as a second and a half delay for a single character echo. This also caused problems for file transfer protocols, e.g., UUCP
UUCP
UUCP is an abbreviation for Unix-to-Unix Copy. The term generally refers to a suite of computer programs and protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of files, email and netnews between computers. Specifically, a command named uucp is one of the programs in the suite; it...
'g' or Kermit, where a small packet of data was sent by one computer, followed by a wait for acknowledgment ("send and wait").
The TrailBlazer addressed this problem through a technique known as "protocol spoofing
Protocol spoofing
Protocol spoofing is used in data communications to improve performance in situations where an existing protocol is inadequate, for example due to long delays or high error rates....
". When the local computer sent a packet to the modem for transmission, the modem's controller immediately sent an ACK message generated locally. This fooled the computer into thinking the packet had already reached the far end, prompting it to send another packet. The error correction normally being applied in the protocol was instead handled using a proprietary replacement protocol operating on top of the MNP
Microcom Networking Protocol
The MNP family of error-correcting protocols were commonly used on early high-speed modems. Originally developed for use on Microcom's own family of modems, the protocol was later openly licensed and used by most of the modem industry, notably the "big three", Telebit, USRobotics and Hayes...
error-correcting protocols to talk to the remote modem. In general, spoofing worked well with any protocol that used small packets, and thus generated lots of ACK messages; support for XModem
XMODEM
XMODEM is a simple file transfer protocol developed as a quick hack by Ward Christensen for use in his 1977 MODEM.ASM terminal program. XMODEM became extremely popular in the early bulletin board system market, largely because it was so simple to implement...
and Kermit
Kermit (protocol)
Kermit is a computer file transfer/management protocol and a set of communications software tools primarily used in the early years of personal computing in the 1980s; it provides a consistent approach to file transfer, terminal emulation, script programming, and character set conversion across...
followed.
Support for these features did not come easily; the TrailBlazer Plus, for instance, used a Motorola 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
to drive its electronics. This meant that the TrailBlazers were generally very expensive. However, its spoofing ability made the TrailBlazer modems extremely popular in the Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
world, as it could dramatically improve UUCP throughput, even at low connection speeds on very noisy lines. Improvements of over 7 times faster than a 2400 bit/s modem were not uncommon. Sites that required long-distance telephone calls to exchange UUCP mail could pay for the price of a TrailBlazer in long-distance savings fairly quickly.
The Trailblazers also introduced an extensive set of commands for setting up its various options. While most of the simple commands were based on the Hayes command set
Hayes command set
The Hayes command set is a specific command-language originally developed for the Hayes Smartmodem 300 baud modem in 1981. The command set consists of a series of short text strings which combine together to produce complete commands for operations such as dialing, hanging up, and changing the...
, like dialing a number or hanging up a phone, their proprietary capabilities were supported by proprietary commands and syntax. Most of these took the form of
register=value pairs, leading to extremely long and almost undecipherable setup strings.In 1988 Telebit added the T1000, essentially a TrailBlazer limited to a lower-speed 9600 bit/s version of PEP, remaining compatible at that speed with existing TrailBlazers. The T2000 added support for synchronous
Synchronization
Synchronization is timekeeping which requires the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. The familiar conductor of an orchestra serves to keep the orchestra in time....
communications, typically used between mainframe computers.
The NetBlazer
Another of Telebit's famous products was the world's first on-demand internetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
dialup router, the NetBlazer. The product was developed by a team led by Mike Ballard, formerly of Packet, who eventually became Telebit's CEO in 1986, and president in 1992.
The NetBlazer essentially consisted of a small-form-factor PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
combined with custom software and one of a variety of modems or other connection systems (ISDN, etc.) combined into a large modem-like box. Users connected to it via Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
, which was also used for maintenance commands and setup.
In its first release the NetBlazer's supported TCP/IP using SLIP
Slip
- In science and technology :* Slip , an aqueous suspension of minerals, and frequently deflocculant.* Slip , a positional displacement in a sequence of transmitted symbols...
, but a later upgrade added Point-to-Point Protocol
Point-to-Point Protocol
In networking, the Point-to-Point Protocol is a data link protocol commonly used in establishing a direct connection between two networking nodes...
(PPP) and support for IPX
IPX
Internetwork Packet Exchange is the OSI-model Network layer protocol in the IPX/SPX protocol stack.The IPX/SPXM protocol stack is supported by Novell's NetWare network operating system. Because of Netware's popularity through the late 1980s into the mid 1990s, IPX became a popular internetworking...
and AppleTalk
AppleTalk
AppleTalk is a proprietary suite of protocols developed by Apple Inc. for networking computers. It was included in the original Macintosh released in 1984, but is now unsupported as of the release of Mac OS X v10.6 in 2009 in favor of TCP/IP networking...
.
The protocol stack was a commercially licensed version of KA9Q
KA9Q
KA9Q, also called KA9Q NOS or simply NOS, was a popular early implementation of TCP/IP and associated protocols for amateur packet radio systems and smaller personal computers connected via serial lines. It was named after the amateur radio callsign of Phil Karn, who first wrote the software for a...
. Later versions of the hardware switched from the Intel 80386
Intel 80386
The Intel 80386, also known as the i386, or just 386, was a 32-bit microprocessor introduced by Intel in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors and were used as the central processing unit of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time...
to a low-cost microcontroller
Microcontroller
A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit containing a processor core, memory, and programmable input/output peripherals. Program memory in the form of NOR flash or OTP ROM is also often included on chip, as well as a typically small amount of RAM...
version of the Motorola 68030
Motorola 68030
The Motorola 68030 is a 32-bit microprocessor in Motorola's 68000 family. It was released in 1987. The 68030 was the successor to the Motorola 68020, and was followed by the Motorola 68040. In keeping with general Motorola naming, this CPU is often referred to as the 030 .The 68030 features on-chip...
, the MC68EN360.
Increasing speeds
The original TrailBlazer, T1000 and T2000 were backwards-compatible with the 2400 bit/s V.22bis standard, allowing them to connect with what was then the most common modem speed when talking to other brands of modems.The first multi-company standard for 9600 bit/s dialup modems was V.32, introduced in 1989. Initially V.32 modems were very expensive, but Rockwell
Conexant
Conexant Systems, Inc. is an American semiconductor company, formerly the semiconductor division of Rockwell International. Currently it's privately owned by Golden Gate Capital, an equity firm headquartered in San Francisco.-History:...
introduced modules and eventually chipsets that brought the prices down. Telebit first offered V.32 support in the T2500, which used the Trailblazer/T2000 hardware with the addition of the Rockwell V.32 modem module. A version without PEP support was offered as the T1500. The later T1600 had basically the same feature set as the T1500, but used Telebit's own V.32 implementation rather than the Rockwell module, resulting in reduced production cost and better performance. Both the T1500 and T1600 had list prices over $1000, although at the time a "1st tier" product from Hayes
Hayes Microcomputer Products
Hayes Microcomputer Products was a U.S.-based manufacturer of modems. They are particularly well known for their Smartmodem, which is introduced the ability to control the modem through commands sent in the data stream itself. The "smart modem" approach dramatically simplified operation, making...
or U.S. Robotics
U.S. Robotics
USRobotics Corporation is a company that makes computer modems and related products. It sold high-speed modems in the 1980s, and had a reputation for high quality and compatibility. With the reduced usage of voiceband modems in North America in the early 21st century, USR is now one of the few...
generally cost about $700.
The V.32bis standard, increasing the bit rate to 14,400 bit/s, was introduced in 1991, and most modem vendors quickly responded with upgrades and new modems. A particularly "upsetting" change was Rockwell's decision to introduce a V.32bis chipset at a seriously reduced price point, allowing complete modems to be sold for about $300. All of the 1st tier companies, Hayes, USR and Telebit, had serious difficulties adapting quickly to a market that was now filled with low-cost modems with similar or better performance than their own "high-end" models. Telebit started slipping in terms of relative performance, while still trying to sell their products at their traditional high price points.
Telebit finally introduced the T3000 with V.32bis but without PEP, though a PEP upgrade was planned. Instead, Telebit "re-released" it in early 1994 as the $1,099 WorldBlazer model; essentially a T3000 with the new 23,000 bit/s TurboPEP mode. An upgrade from the T3000 to WorldBlazer was sold, consisting of two firmware ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
s and a PAL
Programmable Array Logic
The term Programmable Array Logic is used to describe a family of programmable logic device semiconductors used to implement logic functions in digital circuits introduced by Monolithic Memories, Inc. in March 1978. MMI obtained a registered trademark on the term PAL for use in "Programmable...
chip.
There were some design studies of a possible full-duplex PEP using echo cancellation
Echo cancellation
'The term echo cancellation is used in telephony to describe the process of removing echo from a voice communication in order to improve voice quality on a telephone call...
(as is used in V.32), and this technology was proposed to the CCITT (now known as the ITU-T
ITU-T
The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector is one of the three sectors of the International Telecommunication Union ; it coordinates standards for telecommunications....
) for possible adoption as the V.fast modem standard. However, more conventional modem technology was chosen and standardized as V.34. Telebit deemed full-duplex PEP to require more engineering effort than was justified by the shrinking market for PEP modems, and never introduced this feature.
The Octocom merger and the FastBlazer V.34 modem
The CCITT moved quickly to improve on V.32bis, and by 1993 it was clear that the ratification process for their new 28,800 bit/s V.34 standard was going to be finalized in 1994. Companies lined up to start production of new V.34 designs, some going so far to introduce models based on interim standards, notably V.FC.Telebit's modem engineering team developed a plan for a V.34 modem, but the executive staff believed that it was important to get a product to market more quickly. To that end, they began looking for other modem companies to acquire, and in January 1993 announce that Telebit would acquire Octocom Systems, a small privately held modem company in Massachusetts. Octocom had a V.34 modem in development which was expected to be ready for shipment quickly. Almost all modem engineering activities at Telebit's California offices ceased, though NetBlazer engineering continued to be based in California until the end of 1995.
The Telebit FastBlazer 8840 V.34 modem was introduced in May 1994. When the FastBlazer was first introduced it did not include V.34 support, with management stating that they couldn't do so because the standard was not yet ratified. Although this was true (for one month anyway, it was ratified in June), the FastBlazer did not ship with an interim standard either; even AT&T's largely ignored 19,200 bit/s v.32terbo would only be available as a post-release upgrade in July, there were no plans to support the widespread V.FC at all, and no date was set for full V.34 support other than "two or three months".
Making matters worse, the FastBlazer didn't include fax support, and while Telebit stated that an upgrade to add this would be available, they would be charging for it. Nor would the FastBlazer support PEP, which, although by then a minor consideration for most potential buyers, was still a differentiator for Telebit's existing installed base. For sites with a Telebit modem on at least one end of a link, a PEP-capable upgrade might be worthwhile. Without PEP, the FastBlazer had essentially no advantage over any other V.34 modem.
All this for an introductory price of $1,399, when V.32bis faxmodems were available for $200 or less, and industrial-quality V.34 designs were soon available for under $500.
It took seven months before Telebit introduced V.34 support in January 1995, also releasing the $399 TeleBlazer "low-end" model at the same time. By this point even long-time supporters were publicly pooh-poohing the company on the UseNet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
, the medium that originally drove the widespread adoption of the TrailBlazer.
End of the company
The company found itself in serious financial difficulty. Late in 1993 they completed their merger with Octocom, the idea being to use Octocom's Chelmsford, MassachusettsChelmsford, Massachusetts
Chelmsford is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 33,802. The Census Bureau's 2008 population estimate for the town was 34,409, ranking it 14th in population among the 54 municipalities in...
manufacturing capability, downsizing the existing Sunnyvale office to become a NetBlazer development site. The VP of Engineering quit in the spring, and the west-coast office was then closed.
As it turned out, the manufacturing costs at Octocom were actually higher than their original west-coast factory, and they failed to pay bills on time with one of their major component suppliers. New lines of credit were quickly arranged with various distributors, but this resulted in higher parts costs. This simply made matters worse, and by December 1995 it was publicly known that the company was up for sale.
In 1996 the bulk of their networking business were acquired by Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
for $200M, primarily for their channelized T1 digital modem technology. The offer was unsolicited.. Cisco was uninterested in the analog modem side of the business which was spun off to the existing management team to become Telebit Incorporated.
In the summer of 1997 they merged with another small company, ITK Telekommunikation, which was purchased a year later in July 1998 by Digi International
Digi International
Digi International was founded in 1985 as DigiBoard and is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA. The company went public as Digi International in 1989 and is traded on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol DGII. The company initially offered intelligent ISA/PCI boards with multiple...
, makers of the DigiBoard multi-port serial card for PCs. Digi was uninterested in the modem line, which was now hopelessly outdated, and immediately cancelled production. Remaining inventory was liquidated in March 1999.
Legacy
While the Trailblazers have generally been displaced by modems implementing the higher-rate V.34/V.90 series standards, and although they have been out of production since the mid-1990s, many TrailBlazers continue to be in operation to this date, and repair services are still available.Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing is a method of encoding digital data on multiple carrier frequencies. OFDM has developed into a popular scheme for wideband digital communication, whether wireless or over copper wires, used in applications such as digital television and audio...
(OFDM), which is used in both the ITU Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...
(ADSL) and IEEE 802.11
IEEE 802.11
IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for implementing wireless local area network computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. They are created and maintained by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee . The base version of the standard IEEE 802.11-2007 has had subsequent...
Wireless LAN standards, has some of its roots in the Packet Ensemble Protocol. In particular, these protocols reuse PEP's concept of carrying a single data link over many lower rate FDM
Frequency-division multiplexing
Frequency-division multiplexing is a form of signal multiplexing which involves assigning non-overlapping frequency ranges to different signals or to each "user" of a medium.- Telephone :...
sub-carriers.
In 1995, a Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
engineer sent a Worldblazer to an NGO
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
in Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
, which promptly put it to work connecting that remote country to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, at first by UUCP
UUCP
UUCP is an abbreviation for Unix-to-Unix Copy. The term generally refers to a suite of computer programs and protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of files, email and netnews between computers. Specifically, a command named uucp is one of the programs in the suite; it...
, then by other means. (Now, faster connections are used, even in remote areas of the world.)
Models
| Model | Year | Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| Trailblazer | 1985 | Original model, approximately 18,000 bit/s |
| Trailblazer+ | ? | performance improvement, over 19,000 bit/s |
| T1000 | 1988 | lower-cost model limited to 9600 bit/s |
| T2000 | ? | synchronous link support |
| T2500 | ? | T2000 + V.32 (9600 bit/s) support added based on Rockwell module |
| T1500 | ? | V.32 (9600 bit/s) without PEP, Rockwell based |
| T1600 | ? | V.32, Telebit-internal implementation |
| T3000 | ? | V.32bis(14400 bit/s) and fax support |
| WorldBlazer | 1994 | T3000 with TurboPEP and, later, fax |
| FastBlazer | 1994 | V.34 (28800 bit/s) |
| TeleBlazer | 1995 | "low cost" V.34 |
| QBlazer | ? | V.32 (9600 bit/s) battery-powered portable modem |
| QBlazer+ | ? | V.32bis (14400 bit/s) version of the QBlazer |
| NetBlazer | ? | Ethernet-connected on-demand SLIP Slip - In science and technology :* Slip , an aqueous suspension of minerals, and frequently deflocculant.* Slip , a positional displacement in a sequence of transmitted symbols... and PPP Point-to-Point Protocol In networking, the Point-to-Point Protocol is a data link protocol commonly used in establishing a direct connection between two networking nodes... router |