Digium TCE400B
Digium releases the TCE400B PCI Express card for use with voice applications based on the open source Asterisk telephony platform. The new card provides hardware-based voice compression and decompression (codec) capabilities to shift transcoding from software to hardware. Using the TCE400B in place of a software-only solution places fewer demands on servers and frees up Asterisk to more efficiently process calls and to provide functionality for phone systems such as call recording, conference calling and interactive voice response.
The TCE400B is a half-length, low-profile PCI-Express x1 card for transforming complex VoIP codecs into simple codecs. This product is, essentially, a PCI-Express version of Digium’s existing TC400B product.
- PCI Express Form Factor
- Half Length, Low Profile
- 120 G.729a or 92 mixed channels of G.729a/G.723.1 codecs
The TCE400B does not provide a timing interface like other Digium telephony card products. As such, should you use the TCE400B with an Asterisk application that requires timing, e.g. MeetMe, then Digium recommends use of either another Digium telephony card or the use of the dahdi_dummy software timing device. Note that the release of DAHDI 2.2.0 brings many improvements to dahdi_dummy.
In addition to its support for G.729a transcoding, the TCE400B gives Asterisk the ability to convert G.723.1 compressed audio into other formats, a capability not otherwise possible with Asterisk or software-only solutions. The card’s capabilities allow transcoding between simple, G.711 u-law and a-law, and complex, G.729a 8.0 kbit/s and G.723.1 5.3/6.3 kbit/s, codecs. When running in G.729a mode, the TCE400B can support 120 simultaneous transformations; in a mixed G.729a and G.723.1 mode, it supports 92 simultaneous transformations.
The TCE400B card product utilizes Digium’s wctc4xxp driver file that is part of the DAHDI driver package. Operation of the TCE400B requires a minimum DAHDI release of 2.0.0. Digium always recommends that customers wanting to use the TCE400B use the current (2.2.0) versions instead of the minimum versions. Current versions may include important bug or performance improvements.
The TCE400B also utilizes the codec_dahdi Asterisk module. Operation of the TCE400B, in addition to the above DAHDI requirements, also requires a minimum Asterisk release of 1.4.22 (or later) or 1.6.0.1 (or later). Digium always recommends that customers use the current versions instead of the minimum versions.
The TCE400B is compatible with Open Source Asterisk 1.4.
The TCE400B is compatible with Open Source Asterisk 1.6.
The TCE400B is compatible with Asterisk Business Edition C.X
The TCE400B is not compatible with any current version of Switchvox SMB.
The TCE400B is not compatible with any current version of Switchvox SOHO.
The TCE400B is not compatible with any current version of Switchvox Free.
The TCE400B’s PCI Identifier is d161:8004
Asterisk is the most widely used open source telephony engine and tool kit. By offering flexibility to access and alter the software code, Asterisk empowers developers and systems integrators to create VoIP communication solutions that match the specific needs of a business. Many businesses use Asterisk as a PBX to manage phone calls, but it’s also commonly used as a gateway between IP and PSTN networks, a telephony feature server and as the basis for call center applications.
