Networking The Home - Home Phone Network Alliance - Industry Trend or Event

Futurists have for many years said that someday we would be coming home to smart homes where the security system, PC and even kitchen appliances would be networked to provide home dwellers with a variety of advanced capabilities. Now, products based on an inexpensive home network standard running at 1 megabit-per-second (1Mbps) speed through common telephone wiring appear to be a matter of months away, just in time for the holiday season.

Last week the recently-established Home Phone Networking Alliance (HPNA) (EN, June 22) got another boost as Compaq disclosed that it has signed a 15-year license for the 1Mbps home HomeRun home networking technology from Tut and that it has joined AT&T Ventures, Itochu International and Microsoft as Tut investors and strategic partners.

The licensing agreement will allow Compaq to incorporate HomeRun technology into future products. Tut and Compaq will also engage in a number of cooperative marketing activities designed to encourage third parties to develop HomeRun-compatible products.

Craig Stouffer, VP of marketing at Tut Systems, said of the Compaq investment: "This is Compaq's one and only investment in the company. Why did they make the investment? Tut had the HomeRun technology last year. Originally HomeRun was designed to go to 2MHz. The problem is that (operating frequency) conflicts with various DSLs (digital subscriber lines)," Mr. Stouffer said.

Compaq, a supporter of U-ADSL (universal asynchronous digital subscriber line) technology made a request of Tut with regards to this potentially lucrative market.

"Compaq is one of the key promoters of U-ADSL and they said, you have this HomeRun stuff but it conflicts with U-ADSL. Compaq made a strong request that we readjust the technology to make sure it's compatible.

And Tut did so. Originally designed to run at 2MHz, Tut's HomeRun technology was boosted to run between 5.5MHz and 9.5MHz, centered on 7.5MHz in order to accommodate Compaq's request, a move that may have made Tut's future, according to Mr. Stouffer.

"It was a good move. We made the changes as part of the suggestion we do that and make Tut whole. There was impact to Tut initially in terms of time to market but it worked out, and that was the foundation of the investment," he said.

Mr. Stouffer also revealed that Tut recently filed to go public. "We have received about $40 million in venture capital and corporate money. Friday, (July 31) the company filed to go public."

The HPNA stepped into the spotlight just a month and-a-half-ago when 11 of the industry's leading lights formed a consortium to promote a new home networking system based on technology from Tut Systems. Founding members include: 3Com, AMD, AT&T Wireless, Compaq, Epigram, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Lucent Technologies, Rockwell Semiconductor Systems and Tut Systems. To date, only three have licensed Tut's technology: AMD, AT&T and Compaq but all of the others are said to be in the process of obtaining licenses, which are offered at a nominal fee.

The HPNA has been overwhelmed since then by an estimated (as of the end of last week) 150 requests for membership from companies around the globe. And it is likely that most of those membership applications will be accepted. According to Cyrus Namazi, HPNA chairman and product marketing manager for AMD, because the HPNA advocates an open standard it cannot refuse any candidate that meets the basic requirement of commitment to furthering the proposed HPNA standard.

"We've made some goals and milestones. I'm happy to report we seem to be on track in terms of the 1-megabit specification," Mr. Namazi said in an interview last week. He also revealed plans to set up a certification laboratory that will provide a "seal of approval" to OEMs developing products for the HPNA standard (see story, page one).

Test Lab Revealed

"The gist of it is to set up a technical center where OEM developers can take their products and test against a pre-defined battery of tests," Mr. Namazi said, adding that trials of the proposed specification are already under way in a large number of U.S. homes.

When asked whether the group will use existing tests or develop its own, he replied, "We are developing proprietary tests AND using industry standard tests. Ultimately, the goal is to develop a seal of approval that members of HomePNA can put on their products. The goal is to be ready by the time products are rolled out," at the end of this year, Mr. Namazi said.

Tut chairman and CTO Matt Taylor told Electronic News that HPNA differs from other recent enabling technologies such as the PCI (peripheral component interconnect) bus and the USB (universal serial bus) in that those technologies were created to solve a problem whereas the forthcoming HPNA specification is being crafted to head one off.