Modems at full tilt

With networking one of the chosen themes for this year's Comdex trade show extravaganza, it's fitting that communications technologies share in the limelight.

Cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) modems are expected to rank among the convention's hottest communications products because they up the stakes in high-speed access to speeds ranging up to 10 mbps, which is several times that of today's dial-in modems.

Still, nobody's ignoring 56-kbps modem products--a number of companies will be exhibiting technology that can "glue" together two modems dialed into separate phone lines for doubled connection speeds reaching up 112 kbps--and new PC Card modems for notebooks that combine networking technology will also be on display. Vendors further hope to remind consumers that ISDN is still alive and kicking by showing off new low-cost ways of connecting at 128 kbps.

Doubling dial-up speeds Diamond Multimedia Systems says its new technology doubles the speed of current Internet dial-up connections by using two standard phone lines at once. Boca modem doubles speed Will users want the extra bandwidth if the cost of Internet access doubles too? Cable modems to retail 3Com announces that it has started shipping cable modems destined for the retail channel, presaging a change in how the device is used. ISDN products still an option Teles aims to remind people that ISDN is still alive and kicking by introducing a new low-cost ISDN "modem." Rockwell integrates modem, LAN Rockwell integrates modem, LAN Rockwell combines networking capabilities and its 56-kbps modem technology into a single chip it says will simplify the lives of notebook and desktop users. Intel codeveloping high-speed modem Intel and a French company announce they will demo at Comdex a high-speed asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) modem that's easy to install.