Rockwell ships 56K chips to waiting modem makers

Rockwell has given the green light to waiting modem manufacturers such as Motorola, revealing that 56kbps chipsets are now shipping, nearly a month after bugs in the software delayed their delivery.

While rivals Hayes and US Robotics took the wind out of Rockwell's sails by launching 56kbps products last week, Rockwell has now fixed the bugs in its K56flex chipset and implemented "identified software enhancements to improve modem performance in selective network configurations," according to the company.

Motorola is now expected to start shipping its ModemSURFR and VoiceSURFR products, which are based on the Rockwell chipset and were delayed due to the chip problems.