Empirix Unveils FX-Blade

CHICAGO -- From GLOBALCOMM 2006, EmpirixR Inc., which helps organizations adopt complex communications solutions with confidence, announced its newest product innovation, Hammer FX-Blade. This new system allows for advanced feature, functional, interoperability, negative, and automated testing under high-load environments. Hammer FX-Blade leverages Empirix's VoIP testing expertise and software-based architecture while exploiting the ease of management, processing scalability and hardware flexibility of industry-standard blade server systems.

The industry's first blade-based testing solution, Hammer FX-Blade enables Network Equipment Manufacturers (NEMs) and service providers to conduct advanced VoIP and IMS feature tests at load levels, resulting in higher-quality network products and services for users. The product was designed to meet the demanding test requirements of today's NGN and IMS products and services, including advanced scripting, comprehensive media analysis, and protocol customization for converged service and interoperability testing.

Blade servers consist of a series of independent server "blades" that incorporate their own processors, memory, storage and network connections, but share a common chassis with integral Ethernet connectivity. They provide a compact, scalable and cost-effective alternative to mainframes and server farms. Since blades utilize industry-standard hardware, they are recognized as the most cost-effective way to achieve processing power. By applying blade server technology to its feature testing platform, Hammer FX-Blade is able to conduct extremely complex tests under high-load environments that can scale from 800 to over 10,000 VoIP endpoints and thousands of calls per second.

Duane Sword, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Empirix, said, "Today's new IMS and Next-Gen Networks have a long and constantly changing list of complex test requirements. Now that IMS products and services are moving from concept to reality, advanced feature testing under load is absolutely critical. Hammer FX-Blade enables a new class of tests that were previously impractical -- or just plain impossible -- to perform. In addition, Hammer FX-Blade is built to adapt to changing IMS requirements making it the ideal feature testing tool at all phases of the IMS lifecycle."

Empirix Inc.