Continuous Computing was a privately held company based in San Diego and founded in 1998 that provides telecom systems made up of telecom platforms and Trillium software, including protocol software stacks for

femtocells In telecommunications, a femtocell is a small, low-power cellular base station, typically designed for use in a home or small business. A broader term which is more widespread in the industry is ''small cell'', with ''femtocell'' as a subset. It c ...

and 4G wireless / Long Term Evolution (LTE). The company also sells standalone Trillium software products and ATCA hardware components, as well as professional services. Continuous Computing's Trillium software addresses LTE Femtocells (Home eNodeB) and pico / macro eNodeBs, as well as the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving Gateway (SWG) and Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG). The company is said to be the first systems vendor to introduce an end-to-end offering that spans the range of

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement *** LTE Advanced Pro * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq * ...

network infrastructure from the Home NodeB (Macro / Pico base stations) to the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).

History

In February 2003, Continuous Computing acquired

Trillium Digital Systems Trillium Digital Systems, Inc. developed and licensed Technical standard, standards-based communications source code software to telecommunications equipment manufacturers for the wireless, broadband, Internet and telephony, telephone network infra ...

' intellectual property, customers and also hired some Trillium engineering, sales and marketing staff from

Intel Corporation Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 series ...

. In July 2004, Continuous Computing expanded with the opening of a major software development center in

Bangalore, India Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. The company acquired key products, people, technology and other assets from China-based UP Technologies Ltd. in July 2005. In October 2007, the company launched "FlexTCA" platforms, targeting the security and wireless core vertical telecom markets. In February 2008, Continuous Computing announced the availability of its upgraded Trillium 3G / 4G Wireless protocol software for comprehensive support of

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Inte ...

(UMTS)

High-Speed Packet Access High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunicat ...

(HSPA) functionality in alignment with 3GPP Release 7 standards. These performance improvements increase the data rates and bandwidth over the air interface in 3G networks. Continuous Computing also announced in February 2008 their partnership with picoChip Designs Ltd. This partnership was created to speed the development of the on-premises mobile wireless

base station Base station (or base radio station) is – according to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Radio Regulations (RR) – a "land station in the land mobile service." The term is used in the context of mobile telephony, wireless com ...

technology and offer a time-saving reference design to Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) entering the mobile space. The combination of Continuous’ software and picoChip's

silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic tab ...

essentially removed a step in the femtocell product development process with a reference design. In February 2009, Continuous Computing announced its new “Solutions & Services” business practice which offers two suites for the wireless and deep packet inspection (DPI) markets. In June 2009 Continuous Computing teamed with

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...

to offer complete HSPA and LTE enterprise and residential femtocells. In July 2009, the company announced value added services (VAS) designed to allow NEPs to accelerate time to market for their enhanced wireless services such as

Short Message Service Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

(SMS), Caller ID,

roaming Roaming is a wireless telecommunication term typically used with mobile devices, such as mobile phones. It refers to a mobile phone being used outside the range of its native network and connecting to another available cell network. Technical ...

E911 Enhanced 911, E-911 or E911 is a system used in North America to automatically provide the caller's location to 911 dispatchers. 911 is the universal emergency telephone number in the region. In the European Union, a similar system exists known as ...

ringback tones Ringing tone (audible ringing, also ringback tone) is a signal tone, signaling tone in telecommunication that is heard by the originator of a telephone call while the destination Terminal_(telecommunication), terminal is alerting the receiving par ...

and e-mail services. In May 2011, the company announced they were acquired by RadiSys for $105 million in stock and cash. Once the transaction is completed, Continuous' CEO will take over the same position with RadiSys, while RadiSys CEO Scott Grout moves to the company's board of directors.

Products

Continuous Computing's Trillium protocol software product line was acquired from

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

in February 2003. NEPs use Trillium to develop network elements for Femtocell, LTE/3G Wireless, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and NGN Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications. The

AdvancedTCA Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA or AdvancedTCA) is the largest specification effort in the history of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG), with more than 100 companies participating. Known as AdvancedTC ...

product family combined packet-based, redundant architecture design with NEBS Level 3 engineering and using PICMG standards and SAF interfaces. FlexTCA is a product family that consists of ATCA platforms pre-integrated with essential services software, SAF-compliant high availability middleware, switching software, and a Trillium Protocol Integration toolkit.

Customers

Continuous Computing has approximately 150 customers worldwide with applications including Femtocells and Signaling Gateways to Radio Network Controllers and Mobility Management Entities.

References

{{Reflist 2011 mergers and acquisitions Embedded systems Defunct computer companies of the United States Privately held companies based in California