SAN JOSE--Texas Instruments got a vote of confidence from Vonage this week when the broadband telephony provider named the company as its preferred provider of VoIP silicon and software.

Through this designation Vonage is encouraging its network equipment manufacturers to use TI's VoIP silicon and software technology when developing products.

"By endorsing and giving direction to their suppliers, Vonage is saying that suppliers' odds of being successful at getting their products in my network go up when they know what's inside," said Bill Simmelink, general manager, VoIP Business Unit at Texas Instruments.

The two companies have worked together to develop products that are compatible with the Vonage network and recently announced the joint collaboration on the development of two new VoIP devices, including a VoIP-enabled videophone from Viseon and a cordless broadband telephone system from VTech.

"Vonage realized that providers who have been running TI software have much better product success in their network," Simmelink said. "When there has been TI software involved in the network and there have been problems to solve, we solve them because we are one of the few companies that understand the problems from both ends."

TI developed its first complete solution for the enterprise VoIP market in 1995 and has shipped more than 100 million VoIP ports since then in IP phone, customer premise equipment gateway, and high-density infrastructure markets.

TI claims to supply more than 80% of all residential and enterprise VoIP gateways and claims the market share lead in shipments of high-density VoIP infrastructure solutions thanks in part to supplying four of the top five manufacturers. The company's silicon and software solutions are embedded in equipment such as DSL and cable modems, integrated access devices and VoIP gateways to provide optimal performance, lower power consumption and system-level integration.