From: tnixon@hayes.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Motorola Codex 326x should be reference for all others 
Date: 23 Nov 92 10:26:14 EDT
Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA

In article <mBXLuB8w165w@zswamp.UUCP>, geoff@zswamp.UUCP (Geoffrey
Welsh) writes: 

>    I'm the first to declare the advantages of standards, but those who bought 
> PEP years ago got their money's worth and more.  ...
>    No, people who bought PEP were *not* wasting their money as long as they 
> were connecting to others who invested in PEP.  The same is true of all 
> proprietary schemes, from USRobotic's HST protocol through these hotshot Codex 
> devices.

I must agree with Geoff.  I don't think anyone here is more a 
proponent of standards than myself.  I _do_ have my disagreements 
with Codex, AT&T, and other companies with regard to their 
pre-V.fast products, but these disagreements have NOTHING to do with 
benefits (or lack thereof) to the end user.  My concerns are more 
along the lines of (a) don't mislead people into thinking they're 
getting a "real" V.fast modem [there's no such thing, yet], or that 
you're sure you'll be able to upgrade them to the real standard at 
no cost or some low fixed cost, and (b) don't expect the CCITT to 
bend over backward to make sure you CAN do such upgrades [by 
crippling the final standard so that you can implement it on your 
current platform with just a ROM upgrade].  I do believe that 
shipping such pre-V.fast products -- particularly by companies who 
are actively involved in the V.fast committee -- distorts the 
process, unavoidably and unfortunately involving political and
marketing issues even more than they would otherwise be. 

That said, however, one cannot fault these companies for wanting to 
fulfill a demand in the marketplace for even higher throughput than 
is possible with V.32bis.  There are certainly applications which 
benefit from it, and which will pay back MANY TIMES OVER the 
difference in cost between a V.32bis-only modem and one of these 
pre-V.fast modems long before the standard is done, just from 
savings in long distance costs alone.  Many of these are "closed 
systems", in which compatibility is not important -- but since all 
of these modems also support V.32bis, you have compatibility at the 
highest current standard speed when you need it.  If you think of 
this class of products as being good quality V.32bis modems with a 
proprietary "turbo" mode for use within your own company for closed 
applications, then who is hurt by it?  Nobody -- so long as 
everybody goes in with their eyes open, and realizes that's what 
they're getting.  Personally, I think seeing these advanced 
technologies in action in real applications will provide us with 
useful information to help us make some important decisions as to 
what should be included in the V.fast standard.

[Of course, some people may take my opinion on this with a grain of 
salt, since Hayes has been, along with USR, Telebit, Microcom, and 
others, a purveyor of modems with proprietary high-speed modulations 
for some time, and has not sworn off the practice.]

-- 
Toby Nixon, Principal Engineer      | Voice   +1-404-840-9200  Telex 401243420
Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.  | Fax     +1-404-447-0178  CIS   70271,404
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