In theory, Intel could combine Trillium's strong presence in Signaling System 7, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM and future soft-switch protocols with the programmable application programming interface technologies it acquired from NetBoost Inc., and the GigaBlade system technologies brought to Intel by Softcom Microsystems Inc. This would give Intel's Internet Exchange Architecture (IX) a broad retargetability for both packet processing and soft switching.

Tom Franz, vice president and general manager of Intel's network processing group, said the offer for Trillium grew out of collaborative efforts the two companies had made in linking silicon with protocol building blocks. Trillium president Jeff Lawrence said Trillium had been talking of tighter links with silicon partners, and that it was only an accident of timing that the deal happened so quickly following Conexant's acquisition of NetPlane.

Franz said Trillium will be run as a separate subsidiary, with full rights to sell source code to outside customers. It will be to Intel's advantage to see Trillium retain some long-term independence, he said.

The acquisition of virtually all stack software companies appears to be driven more by defensive efforts to take merchant software modules off the market, rather than an intent to broaden the software's applicability.

Franz said that clearly was not Intel's intention in acquiring Trillium, since the objective for Trillium software stacks was to maximize its user base.

In one sense, Intel's acquisition of Trillium was no surprise, since Intel has always been a minority investor in Trillium, founded with an initial focus on ISDN by telecom engineering experts Jeff Lawrence and Larisa Chistyakov. As early signaling competitors like Telenetworks Inc. and NewNet Inc. were acquired by OEMs, Trillium diversified its source-level coding business to include a mix of new circuit- and packet-switching applications, putting the company more in competition with NetPlane, Ficon Technologies Inc. and Inverness Systems Inc.

But over the last year, Ficon was acquired by Globespan Inc., while Inverness elements were grabbed by Virata Corp. and Motorola Inc. When Conexant made an offer for NetPlane in mid July, Trillium vice president of marketing Frank Morese pointed explicitly to his company's strong tie to Intel, and said it was "probably inevitable that you face the increasing trend of more and more semiconductor companies acquiring communication software companies, to maintain their own processor ASPs and continue to add value to chip-set solutions."

At about the same time, Trillium competitor DGM&S Inc. changed its name to Ulticom Corp., with a new and strict focus on emerging soft-switch protocols such as Media Gateway Control Protocol. Ulticom faces competition from call-feature application specialists such as Telecom Technologies Inc., Syndeo Inc., ipVerse Inc. and Iperia Inc. But the successive acquisition of soft-switch specialists DTI Corp. by CopperCom Inc. and Technology Control Systems Inc. by Convergent Networks Inc., suggests that the reformulated soft-switch software market could face the same feeding frenzy within the next year that has decimated the independent protocol-stack and signaling world.

Nevertheless, Lawrence said that he would expect soft-switch companies to be acquired by OEMs rather than semiconductor companies. Franz agreed, saying that "as a semiconductor company, we want to offer additional functionalities that our customers can build on top of. I don't want to be the one that builds a switch or router."