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Rockwell has issued a press release in response to a lawsuit by Brent Townshend over 56K intellectual property issues.
A piece by Chris Oakes of Wired reports on ADSL deployment and provides useful pricing information.
Peter Stone bought a Performance 56K modem from Mac/PC/Micro Warehouse, and wondered who actually manufactured the modem:
FYI: I called MW and apparently they are made by Hayes... yup, good old Hayes. As it turned out, I just let Win 95 install a standard hoop-a-joop driver and it worked at 56K just fine.
MSNBC is carrying a Reuter's story about Intel's plans for cable modems.
Practical Peripherals is offering a $40 rebates for most of their 33.6 and 56K modems.
Jason Fletes notes that Diamond Multimedia has beta 1.120 firmware at http://beta.supra.com/1.120-02/. The standard disclaimer applies: beta software may contain bugs. If you want fully-tested software, wait for the final release.
Carmen Noble reports in PC Week that Brent Townshend is suing Rockwell, accusing the company of "trade secret misappropriation." Townshend has applied for key patents used in 56K technology. 3Com recently bought exclusive rights to those patents for use with x2. Lucent, Rockwell's partner in the competing K56flex 56K technology, holds patents that it says are crucial to 56K technology.
In another PC Week story, Noble reports that Hayes and Zoom appear to the the most likely buyers of Motorola's consumer modem division.
Livingston is being acquired by Lucent Technologies for approximately $650 million in Lucent stock. The two companies have a joint press release. Livingston makes remote access equipment used by many businesses and ISPs. Their Portmaster 3 remote access concentrator uses Lucent K56flex chips.
Philips has Windows 95 drivers and V1.120 firmware updates for the EasyConnect internal and external.
Internet over power lines
Canada's Northern Telecom (Nortel) and the UK's Norweb Communications have announced an audacious plan to deliver Internet access over power lines at speeds up to 1 megabit per second. The companies intend to license their technology to existing power utilities. PC World has a Reuter's story, and Chris Oakes of Wired examines some of the technical challenges.
56K.COM is written and maintained by Les Jones. Artwork by Mark Maxwell. Copyright 1997 Softwords.
