Talk:Nortel Meridian

message: I think its important to have the Meridan as a Wikipedia article. There needs to be more traditional telephony articles which it lacks of in more for the VoIP stuff. If the Meridan article gets expanded, then I would figure that other systems will get covered on Wikipedia like the Definity, the NEAX, Norstar (the small end Nortel system that was formerly the Meridian) or other major systems. I just added more info to the article, so hopefully someone can expand it some more! Steven312 19:49, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Importance

message: The Meridian 1 does support Voice Over IP. This comes in the form of "ITG-Trunk cards" for H.323 VoIP trunking. Also, VoIP between the PBX and IP sets can be added using an "IP Line card".
Additionally the PBX can be upgraded to a "CS1000" IP PBX via hardware and software upgrade (but leaving the majority of the switch intact).  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.157.55.112 (talk) 20:09, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: VoIP?

message: Arragh.  The references tags are broken, and I can't figure out why.
--TravisM 18:56, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  References 

message: To establish the notability of the Meridian, is it worth including comment that the Meridian 1 is the only large-scale non-IP PBX offered by BT Davidprior 00:39, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Notability 

message: This is personal knowlege without references. Northern Telecom first introduced the SL-1 product line during the late 1970's. The digital telephone, an SL1, at the time was a hybred running on two pair of wires, a control pair and a talk pair. Both analog and the Sl1 voice signal was converted to time division multiplex (digital) in the line cards by a codex device. During the late 1980's a true digital set was developed where the codex resided in the phone. The M2009 and the M2112 were two examples of this technology. Around 1990 the Meridian name was introduced and about that time Northern Telecom changed it's name to Nortel. The Meridian series of phones where introduced to replace the early versions mentioned above. The Meridian platform of the 1990's with its modular architecture no longer supported the SL-1 hybed.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.223.207.28 (talk) 19:18, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Meridain - SL1 

message: I was hired by Bell Canada in 1973 as a switching center (aka "central office" or "CO") technician so here are some personal recollections:
A lot of SXS technology was installed in the 1940s but it was industry policy to attempt to make every investment last up to 40 years. At a very high level of abstraction, step-by-step is a lot like a massive networks of CPUs because a data decision was made at each switch as it responded to a single dialed digit. A lot of 5XB crossbar was installed in the late 1950s and 1960s. 5XB employed one, or more, markers (an electro-mechanical computer) to set up connections though a matrix of interconnected crossbar switches. SL1 (stored logic one) was developed by Northern Electric (NE) in the early 1970s for use in a PBX environment at large customer sites (industry, education, government). SL1 employed a computer as a marker on a matrix of minibars (miniature crossbars). NE then used their experience to develop SP1 (stored program one) for use by the phone company in central office locations.
Note: crossbars and minibars are nothing but a set of relays so we are still talking "analog signals" up to this point.
It was during the mid 1970s that I heard gossip indicating that NE had developed an all-digital switch but were putting it on the shelf for a year or two until the cost of silicon chips came down. NE changed their name to Northern Telecom (then later, Nortel) around the time I heard about the all-digital switch called DMS (DMS-100 for local switching; DMS-200 for toll switching; DMS-10 for CDO use in smaller communities and DMS-1). There was also a DMS-1 which was intended to replace PBXs but that didn't work out so DMS-1 was repurposed as a 256 line concentrator.
We installed our DMS-200 in 1978 then installed a DMS-100 to replace our SxS switch in 1980-1. IIRC, the 5XB was replaced around 1985 meaning that 5XB only lasted 20 years.
As an "inside technician", I never worked on Meridian but was certain that it was an all-digital replacement for SL1.
Software Comment: Part way through my career I switched over to computer programming and software design. I knew a lot of people who developed software at Nortel and never once heard anyone mention VxWorks. Everyone was talking about a general complaint of new employees: "why are you not using C"? Apparently Northern Telecom hired a new batch of engineering grads each year who knew how to program in "C" but then had to attend company classes where they were taught how to program in Protel. So a decision was made (1988-9) to convert their source code from Protel into C. IIRC, this took a year longer than expected with translated into a loss of sales. 
Neilrieck (talk) 16:21, 27 June 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Big Picture