Claude, I found the original article on the Rockwell chipsets;
Rockwell Unveils Roadmap For Cable Modem ICs
Chip Giant Scores Wins with Panasonic, Daewoo and NEC;
Hopes to Bring Telco Modem Model to Cable Market
More than 300 companies currently build dial-up telephone modems with integrated circuits (ICs) from Rockwell Semiconductor Systems Inc. If the chip giant has its way, a wide range of vendors will also be building cable modem products that meet the Multimedia Cable Network System (MCNS) data over cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) standard with Rockwell ICs by 1999.
"We would like to take the same model that Rockwell has applied to telephone modems and carry that over into the cable modem space," said Scott Keller, Rockwell's cable modem marketing manager.
Rockwell is off to a good start on its quest, as five key cable modem players have already announced plans build to products with Rockwell ICs: 3Com Corp., Daewoo Electronics Co., Panasonic Video Communications Co., NEC America Inc., and New Media Communication Ltd. (now a subsidiary of Harmonic Lightwaves Inc.).
To accelerate its entry into the cable modem space, Rockwell acquired ComStream Corp.'s Hi-Media broadband communications chipset business for $50 million in May 1997.
As a leading developer of QPSK (quadrature phase shift keying) and QAM (quadtrature amplitude modulation) ICs used in direct broadcast satellite (DBS) and digital cable set top boxes, Hi-Media offered the technology base Rockwell required to quickly deliver a cable modem solution.
By the fourth quarter of 1998, Rockwell plans to have a two-chip MCNS cable modem solution, including a single PHY chip and a single MCNS and Ethernet MAC chip. Each chip will be priced at $30 in quantity. By embedding additional functionality in the silicon, Keller says these two chips will account for 75 percent of a total cable modem bill of goods.
I am coming to an understanding why HLIT did not set the world on fire last year. They were way ahead of COMS and BAY at that time. I read an interesting comment from a small cable operator,about his plans for 2-way internet access. He stated that until the big boys came in,notably BAY LANcity,there was not a legitimacy,nor a source of the magnitude needed for deployment of systems.
I read another extremely interesting article,cannot remember from where,about Thomson's(RCA's),plans for a Web TV based appliance,to cost about $199,and provide cable modem access. So maybe HLIT can work with RCA,and set up a competitor to WebTV and MSFT? RCA,and HLIT bringing better things to light?
Tim |
