STMicroelectronics and fabless telecom semiconductor company Octasic have signed an agreement to develop a family of Voice-over-Packet (VoP) ICs. The first devices to be developed under this agreement will be based on ST's 0.13µm and 90nm process technology. They will feature Octasic's designs for VoP and Voice Quality Enhancement, which includes technology for line and acoustic echo cancellation, noise reduction capabilities, vocoding, and packetisation.

The first IC will be available in Q2 2005, with the second one to follow soon after, say the companies.

The agreement also provides for the development of future SoC VoP devices, which will be implemented in 90nm and below process technologies.