TXN=INTC of the new decade...........TI cuts ADSL chip count by 66% in new chip
set series
By J. Robert Lineback
Semiconductor Business News
(04/24/00, 08:24:19 AM EDT)
DALLAS -- Taking aim at becoming the top supplier in ADSL chip sets by the end
of 2001, Texas Instruments Inc. here today announced its next-generation
asymmetric digital subscriber line products for customer premise equipment. For
PCI-based ADSL systems, TI's new chip set reduces the IC count from six to two
devices--a digital transceiver, and a mixed-signal codec with integrated line driver
and receiver functions.
TI's chip sets use a common platform, based on a programmable digital signal
processor (DSP), to offer five different varieties of ADSL products focused on four
different customer premise design applications.
One version, the AU5, offers the industry smallest and lowest power ADSL
solution for Universal Serial Bus (USB) designs, fitting on the size of a credit card
(2-by-3 inches), said the Dallas company. The AH5 PCI chip set offers a fallback
mode with analog V.90 modem operation in addition to ADSL using the same
DSP core. TI said its AP5 chip set is a low-profile PCI implementation of an ADSL
modem on a 3-by-5-inch card. TI is also offering new ADSL chips for remote
access in router and gateway applications.
"Up until now the competition has offered one or two products, but this
introduction addresses four different applications with five products based on the
same core chip set, architecture, and common software," said Nancy Fares,
marketing manager for customer premise equipment application at TI in Dallas.
The common platform strategy is aimed at enabling ADSL equipment customers
to speed their introductions to the marketplace. ADSL service providers require
certification and approval of equipment attached to their networks, Fares noted,
and TI believes a common chip-set architecture will make it easier for system
makers to rapidly expand their product lines.
The ADSL transceiver chip is fabricated with a digital CMOS process, producing
drawn transistor gate lengths of 0.13 micron. The integrated coder-decoder
(codec) IC is fabricated with a 0.5-micron BiCMOS technology. In the PCI chip
set, TI has integrated the universal digital interface as well as the segmentation
and reassembly (SAR) functions on its new TNETD5200 transceiver. The 5014
codec contains the line driver and receiver function, reducing the chip count.
The overall result is a 66% reduction in the number of chips needed to create
ADSL modems for customer premise equipment, said TI's Fares. The reduction in
the total bill of material is more than 75% compared to TI's current ADSL chip set
offering, she added.
Today's launch is part of TI's goal to emerge as the No.2 chip set supplier for
ADSL at the end of 2000--behind Alcatel of France. At the end of 2001, TI aims to
take the No.1 position in ADSL chip-set revenues (see related March 1 story).
The ADSL market is beginning to shift from being heavily concentrated in the
North America region to a global business, Fares said. In 2000, about 60% of the
deployed ADSL modems are expected to be in North America, but by 2003,
nearly two-thirds of the systems will be in other regions, she said. About 4 million
new ADSL subscribers will log on to digital telephony networks in 2000, and the
number of new users will reach 30 million in 2003, according to TI's forecast.
TI's new ADSL chip sets will enter volume production in the third quarter. The
two-chip set will be priced in a range of $35 to $45 each in OEM quantities. |
