These oversights have clouded some of the analog modem market, and may cause similar confusion in the days of broadband access. To the buying public, however, a modem is a modem regardless of the underlying technologies. The industry buzz for telephone modems is soft modems. Soft modem design represents the highest load on the host processor, typically consuming 50 to 60 MHz on a conventional microprocessor, thereby reducing resources available to other programs. Soft modems are a reasonable choice for those who use analog phone connections rarely, or who tend not to run multiple applications while connected online.
Host controllers are optimal for internal add-in card modems and motherboard modems.
The current generation of DSP processors is powerful, programmable and flexible enough for designers to produce communication products that provide DSL and telephone modem functions on a single board. All three modem technology implementations have a place in the market. All rights reserved.