The TCE400B is a bundle of the half-length, low-profile PCI-Express x1 TCE400P base card and the TC400M voice processing module. The TCE400B is designed to handle, in dedicated DSP resources, the complex codec translations for highly compressed audio as would otherwise be processed by Asterisk in software.

Asterisk, in software and with Digium G.729a licensing, is capable of transforming the G.729a codec into other codecs for the purposes of call origination or termination, bridging disparate calls, or VoIP to TDM connectivity. These transformations in software are very expensive, in terms of MIPS, and require a substantial amount of CPU time to accomplish. The TCE400B not only relieves the CPU of this duty, freeing it up to handle other tasks or complete additional call processing, but also provides Asterisk with the capability of bridging G.723.1 compressed audio into other formats, a capability not otherwise possible.

The TCE400B decompresses G.729a (8.0kbit) or G.723.1 (5.3kbit/6.0kbit) into G.711 u-law or a-law; or compresses G.711 u-law or a-law into G.729a (8.0kbit) or G.723.1 (5.3kbit). The TCE400B is rated to handle up to 120 bi-directional G.729a transformations or 92 bi-directional G.723.1 transformations. The TCE400B does not require additional licensing fees for the use of these codecs nor does it require the registration process association with Digium's software-based G.729a codec licensing.