The Intel Universal Phone Device Interface (UPDI) aims to establish a uniform interface specification between 'softphones' software-based phones installed on PCs and peripheral phone devices.

Intels goal is to make it easier to integrate phone devices from a range of device providers and service providers while making the PC a more accommodating platform for these types of VoIP applications.

UPDI is designed to speed product development and testing for independent software vendors (ISVs) and independent hardware vendors (IHVs), while lowering costs.

With UPDI, softphone ISVs no longer have to implement proprietary interfaces and instead can provide 'plug-and-play' support for various phone devices, the company says. The UPDI was also designed to facilitate a broader supply of softphones and devices for service providers.

The UPDI Software Developer Kit aims to provides documentation and reference source code to accelerate software and hardware vendor implementation of UPDI-compatible VoIP components.

Both at home and work, people are increasingly using the PC for all kinds of communication, including voice phone calls. UPDI enables hardware and software vendors to build VoIP phone devices and software that interoperate smoothly, eliminating incompatible or proprietary device implementations that add extra cost and support burden, says Jonathan Khazam, GM of Intels Platform Software Division and vice-president of the Software and Solutions Group. 

Since UPDI utilises existing audio technology through the operating system, no middleware is required to establish a common interface between devices and softphones, he says. A softphone that uses UPDI will immediately recognise when a phone device that supports UPDI is plugged in to a computer, he adds.

CounterPaths support of Intel with UPDI underscores our commitment to innovation in the VoIP space, says CounterPath president and COO, Donovan Jones. The CounterPath Eyebeam 1.5 with the Intel 600SM PCI Phone Adapter was among the first commercial implementations of the UPDI specification. The solution, announced at Computex Taipei in June, enables people to make VoIP calls using existing telephones connected to desktop PCs.