The application of user-configurable logic devices in a broadband telecommunications switching demonstrator

The GEC-Marconi Hirst Research Centre and GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd. (GPT) are involved in a number of projects within the European Commission´s RACE initiative, which is concerned with research into advanced communications technologies for Europe. One RACE project, Atmospheric, deals with hybrid networks capable of handling narrowband and broadband communications in both synchronous and asynchronous transfer modes. The purpose of such networks is to form an evolutionary bridge from the present synchronous environment to future broadband communications networks which will operate asynchronously