The VPB4 is a low cost 4 port Computer Telephony (CT) card.  The card is specifically targeted for developers of PC based Auto Attendant/ Voicemail/ IVR applications and currently runs under Linux and Windows NT.  The driver software is open source!

Pricing

Prices are in US$ and exclude delivery and local taxes.
 

Number of Units	Price Per Unit
1-10	US$400
11-100	US$350
100+	US$330

Open Source

We have released the source code for the VPB4 driver (under the GPL License).

Voicetronix is interested in working with developers who would like to use the VPB4 & VPB8L in open source applications, as we perceive a strong interest in low cost, open source CT hardware for Linux.  We see Linux as a natural operating system for CT, because it is stable, open source, and free.  What is missing at the moment is inexpensive, open source CT hardware.  We would like to fill this niche with the VPB4.

We are also happy to work with developers interested in using the VPB4 with other operating systems.  The driver code is mainly a user mode library with a light kernel mode component - making it very easy to port.

Features

• Four terminating analogue telephone ports. These ports are functionally and electrically equivalent to a telephone and are capable of terminating lines from an external exchange or PBX.
• Single fixed point DSP that performs control, signal processing, and Host PC communications functions.
• Comprehensive API
• Call Progress Analysis.
• DTMF detection and generation.
• User defined tone generation and detection.
• Voice compression modes: ADPCM at 32 kbit/s, 64 kbit/s A-law and mu-law PCM, 128kbit/s linear PCM.
• Emissions and Australian Communications Authority (ACA) compliant.
• DSP echo cancellation - ideal for VOIP

Minor Problems

There are a few problems with the VPB4 that may affect it's suitability for your application.  All of these will be fixed in the next version, but that will have to wait until we sell enough of the current cards to fund further development!

• ISA Bus:  The current version of the VPB4 is ISA based, the next version will be PCI.
• Caller ID:  The current VPB4 hardware does not support an on-hook audio path, and therefore cannot support caller ID.
• FCC Compliance: The VPB4 has only been certified for use with the Australian telephone system.  Although the hardware would pass FCC compliance easily, we have not had it tested yet.  However, it is still possible to use the VPB4 outside Australia if connected to a PBX, rather than outside lines, as is common for many CT applications.  As soon as demand is high enough we will have the card certified.
• Hardware and Firmware:  We are not releasing the hardware design and firmware source code, apart from those details necessary to work with the driver code.  We have to keep something to our self!  However, we are happy to consider any firmware and hardware mod requests (no promises though!).

The next version of the VPB4 is on the drawing board, new features include:

• On board hardware G723/G729 compression, perfect for VOIP.
• PCI bus.
• Caller ID.
• Available September 2000