To give this system it's full name, the NEC NEAX 7400 2000 IPS has been rebranded and renamed a variety of times throughout it's long life. It is known in all revisions as the NEAX 7400, and until around 2001 known as the NEAX 7400 IVS (Integrated Voice Server). Possibly to tie the brand in more closely with the emerging convergence of voice and data technologies (VoIP), it was rebranded as the NEAX 7400 2000IPS (Internet Protocol Server). Various corporate incarnations have also seen the IPS distributed as a Philips product - in white, as a 'Sopho IPS'.

The greatest change in architecture occured in 2001, when the product changed from IVS to IPS. The CPU (the CP-14), was replaced with the CP-24 processor which now incorporated onboard Ethernet. Previously, ethernet was only available for IP-Trunking (seperate PBXs together) and OAI (connectivity to an application server), and on a seperate card. CP24 processor had on-board ethernet for a variety of purposes, including management over IP, inter-econnection of seperate PBXs, running distributed cabinets over IP, providing part of the functionality of IP telephone endpoints and lastly to interface to 3rd party products.

The main form of the NEC IPS is shown above, in the form of a 10u cabinet which can be rackmounted, wallmounted or floor mounted. The cabinets are known as a PIM (Programming Interface Module) and are modular up to a maximum of 8 cabinets per Main Site. In addition, distributed PIMs can be added, further increasing the capacity of the system.

In 2003 a smaller chassis was released (above, left), known as the NEC DM (Distributed Module). This had a variety of purposes - it was sold far cheaper than the full size cabinet, it was more compact, and ideal for small installations. It was limited to 3 cabinets at a main site, meaning you could run approximately 90 TDM (Time Division Multiplex) handsets, and 1000 IP extensions from a single site.

In 2007, the chassis was redesigned with a variety of operational improvements and slots for more cards. When these smaller cabinets are run as distributed remote modules of a main site, they're known as DMR cabinets (Distributed Module Remote)

NEC IPS systems are generally economically viable when over 40 extensions are required. Once they're econimically viable, they can offer a vast array of features making it one of the most diverse systems on the market. Due to the exceptional backwards compatibility of the system (you can run many cards from a 1983 release in a 2008 system), whilst being a full blown VoIP PBX, supporting many emerging standards like Vo-Fi DECT and SIP Trunking, it will also support all older technologies like analogue/POTs lines, basic rate, Q-SIG, H323 and so on.