VOIP Tech Chat → [Equipment] AudacityT2U-based ATA list

I've always had a certain fascination with the ATAs that use the AudacityT2U CPU or a variant thereof (which nowadays I think is exclusively dominated by the Myson Century clones). I think it's mostly because of how widespread the deployment of this chip actually is (much to my own surprise, when I learned of it) and thus how many different variants of the firmware are out there. According to legend :) many of the hardware devices seem to stick relatively close to the reference design, so you will often find that firmware written for one ATA will drive one made by a different manufacturer. (Also, the history of the Audacity+Veracity platform is rather interesting, too.)

I've compiled a list of all of the ATAs that I've run across which use this chip. (No, I don't physically possess all of these models, or many of them for that matter.) From this list, the only models which seem to still be in active production are the most recent 8x8 ones (although who manufactures these for 8x8, I haven't the foggiest...any ideas? I don't think Leadtek is in the game anymore...), the SiNOVoIP ones, the two Patton SmartLink models, and the ATCOM single-FXS/single-ethernet model. And of those, the only unlocked ones that seem to be readily available in the US are the Patton and ATCOM units. It sure seems like the use of the AudacityT2 platform might finally be waning... (or maybe it's just the manufacture of ATAs in general that is slowing down).

I feel like I might be forgetting/missing 1 or 2 notable ATAs, so if you have any to add to the list, please do. Also, if anybody can track down copies of any firmware from any of the ATAs in this list, that could prove to be both interesting and useful (for example, a copy of the GlobeTelX firmware with IAX support would be EXTREMELY cool...GlobeTel, from all appearances, is out of business).

Anyway, here is my list, for your amusement and enjoyment. I mostly tried to stick to a convention where models that bear a physical resemblance to other models (with only slight variation of feature sets) share a line together. Also, this list consists primarily of ATAs, although I did go ahead and list the phones that Uniden manufactured for Packet8 as well. I don't know of too many other actual phones are based off of the AudacityT2 platform, but if you know of any, feel free to let the rest of us know.

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AudacityT2U-licensed chips:
 
- 8x8/Netergy AudacityT2(NM4700)/T2U(NM4750)
- Myson Century CS6220/6221/6222[1]
- Centillium CT-GWM7002-TP-AA (NOT Atlanta/VSP?)
- STMicroelectronics STLC1502 (UNSURE/NOTLIKELY)[2]
 
AudacityT2U-derived ATAs (and phones):
 
* All 8x8 models:
  - DTA310
  - BPA410 (Leadtek)
  - BPA430 & BPG510
 
* Uniden (for 8x8)
  - UIP-160P/165P
  - UIP-1868(G)/1868P
 
* Leadtek
  - BVA-8051/8052/8053
    (SIPphone Call-In-One / 8x8 BPA410)
  - BVA-8055
 
* ATCOM
  - AG-110
  - AG-268 & AG-468
 
* Gentek / Gnet
  - VP100S
    ("Smart VOIP IAD")
 
* OvisLink
  - VoIP-2xxRS (210/211/220)
 
* Patton
  - SmartLink M-ATA
  - SmartLink 4020
 
* GlobeTel
  - GlobeTelX IAD-100X & IAD-200X
    (IAX!!)
 
* Telco Systems
  - Access 211N (AC-211N)
 
* Centillium
  - MTA-1 (CT-BX-MTA1-AA)
 
* SiNOVoIP
  - ATA-100A (SinoV-100A)
  - IAD-100I/101I/110I/200I (SinoV-100I/101I/110I/200I)
  - IAD-400I (SinoV-400I)
 
* Shine Star Electronic Technology
  (apparently same as SiNOVoIP)
  - IAD-V1 == ATA-100A
  - IAD-V3/V5/V2 == IAD-101I/110I/200I
  - IAD-V4 == IAD-400I
 
* PLANET
  - VIP-160 / VIP-260
 
* Pheenet
  - VG-100R / VG-110R / VG-200R
 
* E-POWER Ltd. (?? myepn.com)[3]
  - VT-2120
    (CS6220-based; also some Russian docs exist)
 

[1] The CS6220 is an exact replica of the AudacityT2U. However, some of these ATAs *might* be based off of either the CS6221 or CS6222, neither of which map to a specific Netergy AudacityT2x part; they are instead Myson tweaks on the licensed Netergy design that only Myson has ever manufactured, intended to produce lower-cost versions of the chip (less on-die RAM, for example). It is possible that firmware written for CS6221/6222 will not run on AudacityT2U and vice-versa.

[2] I found a claim in a forum post here on BBR that this CPU is ST's version of the AudacityT2U, but I found the datasheet for it, and from what I can tell, it's not even close. For one, the Audacity has a MIPS CPU core, while the ST CPU uses an ARM core. I still put it on the list for completeness' sake, just in case.

[3] On the face of it, myepn.com/E-POWER appears to be a VoIP service provider in China, not a hardware manufacturer. But from what I've been able to piece together, they may very well also manufacture the ATA with this model number. I'm not sure if they only manufacture it for their use or not; the fact that I found some documentation for this ATA in Russian would seem to suggest that at least some others are using it outside of the "EPN Network." Maybe they subcontract the manufacturing out to another company; if anybody has any leads on who the ODM for this model might be, please let me know.

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-- Nathan

GlobeTel products may still be available FWIW.
»www.thevoipconnection.co ··· p_1.html

Yeah, I saw that. However, their website is gone/their domain taken over by squatters, and thevoipconnection.com seems to imply that this is the last of their stock of these devices (while supplies last, no returns, closeout pricing, etc.).

Since the website is gone, I don't know where you go to get firmware updates...hopefully the stock that they have is already preloaded with the latest. Thing is, now that the company who produced the only IAX firmware for this chip is gone, if we had a copy of the firmware, we could try our hands at loading it onto another AT2U box and, say, put the large supply of abandoned Packet8 ATAs back into productive use as IAX endpoints. Or something.

I've made a few updates to my personal list that I want to share here. I apparently cannot edit a post of my own of this age, so rather than post the entire revised list, I will post the revisions only.

Updates:

01) Added DTA200 to Uniden
02) Added Askey section (current OEM for Packet8)
03) Modified 8x8 section to reflect Askey as OEM for latest ATAs
04) Added Broad-Tel, a new SiNOVoIP rebrand
05) Added new Accel/Yoda section...many, many rebrands ("Smart IAD")
06) Moved Gentek/Gnet, Ovislink, GlobeTel[1], and Pheenet to Accel/Yoda section
07) Added new Ovislink model, VoIP-440S
08) For CPUs, updated Audacity part #s
09) For CPUs, added CS6223 to list of Myson Century processors
10) For CPUs, REMOVED STLC1502

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Audacity-T2(U)-licensed chips:
 
= 8x8/Netergy Audacity-T2: 8X84700AW/NN4700AW / -T2U: NM4750AW
  (Audacity-ITP or "Internet Telephony Processor" is 1st-gen w/ MIPS-X3 core;
   Audacity-T2 is second-gen with MIPS-X5 core and 2 ethernets ("T2");
   Audacity-T2U is souped-up T2 with 2 ethernets and ATM UTOPIA ("T2U") --
   T2 part #s were prefixed with either 8X8 or NN to reflect 8x8 or Netergy Networks;
   T2U part #s all prefixed with NM to reflect change to Netergy Microelectronics)
+ Myson Century CS6220/6221/6222/6223
= Centillium CT-GWM7002-TP-AA (NOT Atlanta/VSP? still unknown)
 
- STMicroelectronics STLC1502 "Stradivarius" is NOT Audacity (confirmed)
 
Audacity-T2(U)-derived ATAs (UPDATES ONLY):
 
* All 8x8 models:
  = BPA430 & BPG510 (Askey)
 
* Uniden
  + DTA200
 
* Askey
  + Unknown model #s (perhaps only OEM)
 
* Accel
  + IAD-100S/200S
    (most of these also marketed as
     "Smart IAD" or "Smart IAD-2")
  + IAD-400
 
* Yoda Communications
  (Accel rebrand...or other way around?)  
  + IAD-100/200/210/211
    (also under VP100S?)
  + IAD-400
 
* Gentek Marketing / Gnet
  (Accel/Yoda rebrand)
 
* OvisLink 
  (Accel/Yoda rebrand)
  + VoIP-440S
 
* GlobeTel
  (Accel/Yoda rebrand)
 
* Pheenet
  (Accel/Yoda rebrand)
 
* Cirilium
  (Accel/Yoda rebrand)
  + Smart IAD
 
* Norco Communications
  (Accel/Yoda rebrand)
  + NORCO-I100S/I200S/I200
  + NORCO-I400S
 
* Jensen Scandinavia
  (Accel/Yoda rebrand)
  + IP:Link 500 (== IAD-200)
 
* IP Ware
  (Accel/Yoda rebrand)
  + IPG100(S)/200(S)
  + IPG400(S)
  + IPG800(S) (!)
 
* Broad-Tel
  (another SiNOVoIP rebrand)
  + IAD-200
  + IAD-400
 

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[1] ...and, yes, just in case you're wondering/"just checking," GlobeTel ATAs are apparently Accel/Yoda ODM hardware with their own custom firmware. Some of the others are, too (such as Ovislink, who put their own logo on their firmware), but GlobeTel went one step further and gutted out the SIP call switching in order to replace it with IAX.

-- Nathan

Do you know any adapters based on the Centillium CT-A10RN04-PJ-AD (I think it's the Atlanta A100) ? I think it's a "cousin" of the Audacity chipset.
The reason I am asking is because I have a bunch of ATAs made with this chipset which have a very crappy firmware. These ATAs were an abandoned Netgear product that never made it to market (as far as I can tell the product was going to be called TA622, similar to TA612V, but very different internal design).

I don't know of any yet, but please tell me more about these adapters of yours!

I've been looking for substantive proof of a link between the Atlanta ICs and the Audacity-T2 but haven't been able to find any yet. The part numbers of the Atlanta chips are quite different from the one obvious Audacity-T2U Centillium clone chip that has shown up in the wild (in a Uniden UIP1868 phone station), and the Centillium ATA that they manufactured for AT&T CallVantage (the "MTA-1", which probably used the same CPU as in the Uniden phone, but I've not been able to confirm that) was never described as being part of their Atlanta initiative. But I can't understand why they would bother with the Audacity platform if they truly had their own homegrown one, so...

I also (before you posted your question, even) ran across a press release from Centillium from a few years ago describing an agreement that Netgear entered into with them to purchase Atlanta CPUs to base some new VoIP products off of. Ah, here it is:

»www.businesswire.com/por ··· sLang=en

I couldn't find any evidence that Netgear ever released these products, so it's nice to have confirmation from you that they were in fact never released. (How on earth did you stumble across them and happen to get your hands on actual hardware?)

Does the web configuration interface have that unmistakeable Audacity/Veracity "look-and-feel" to it? Any screenshots you can post?

You say it looks much like a TA612V. Does that mean it is also a TA with routing functionality built-in, or is it a standalone TA? (BTW, what CPU & software drives the TA612V?)

What bugs have you found in the firmware?

Thanks,

-- Nathan

There's not much to say, I bought them on eBay from a seller that claimed they were TA612. The seller was located in Sacramento, CA and as far as I know, Netgear used to (or still) have an R&D department there, so I am guessing he probably had some connections with an insider who got a load of these when they abandoned the project.
There's zero information on the net about it, except the news article you mentioned.
Anyways the firmware on them is all Centillium branded and looks more like a "proof of concept" rather than something usable in production. I am able to make them register with an asterisk server but they are rather unstable.
At first I wasn't even able to logon to them as an Admin account until I found a bug in the web pages that gives me access to the admin options.
The firmware does not look like other Audacity adapters.The Centillium MTA1 (which I have in my collection) looks absolutely identical to the pictures of Uniden DTA 200 that I found on the web and also accepts happily the firmware made for the Uniden (in fact it's the only firmware I found for it that is somewhat stable). The web configuration interface does have the Audacity/Veracity "look-and-feel" both in the original AT&T firmware as well as in the DTA 200 firmware.
The board looks very similar to the one of the UIP1868P from this thread: »[Unlock] Another UIP1868P unlock thread and uses the same CT-GWM7002-TP-AA chipset.Only the external appearance. I'll post pictures sometime when I have my camera handy. It has the same connectors as the TA612V: power, WAN, LAN and two FXS ports.As far as I know it's a Texas Instruments chipset, like the one found in many of the Vonage ATAs.

quote:

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The Centillium MTA1 (which I have in my collection) looks absolutely identical to the pictures of Uniden DTA 200 that I found on the web and also accepts happily the firmware made for the Uniden...

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Thanks for confirming this for me. I was about to post an addendum equating the DTA200 to the MTA-1 since I suspected they were the same device, but I don't possess either, and there are absolutely no good external pictures of the MTA-1 on the internet (that I've managed to find).

(I wonder if Uniden manufactured the DTA200, or if Centillium did. Interestingly, I do have a Uniden UIP165P, and its board looks different and uses a Myson Century CS6220Y instead of the Centillium chip, but has some similar markings on it when you compare it to the DTA200/MTA-1/UIP1868 board.)

quote:

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power, WAN, LAN and two FXS ports

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Okay, so it's a router, then.

I wish I had more info for you on firmware that you could use with your Netgear prototype ATAs. Alas, I do not. If you do find any additional information or firmware images that work better than stock for you, please update us on your findings.

Best of luck,

-- Nathan