Patent ID: 7116764

Claim:
A messaging system comprising: at least one host computer, said host computer comprising a messaging platform upon which messaging applications are executed and a message store for storing messages received by said messaging platform; at least one network interface unit (NIU) having a first interface to the messaging platform on the host computer for communicating between said NIU and said messaging platform and a second interface to a telephone network for receiving calls from said telephone network, and an internal bus coupled to a first module having said first interface and coupled to a second module having said second interface; and at least one embedded services processor unit (ESP), located within the NIU, coupled to said internal bus supporting communications with said first module and said second module of said NIU, said ESP comprising a processor, a memory, an operating system executing on said processor for executing software applications that are otherwise incapable of executing within said NIU, and a network interface that supports an IP protocol for communicating between said ESP and a network external to said messaging system, the network connecting to at least one remote external server computer, wherein the remote external server computer provides multi-media processing for the messaging platform.