From Electronic Buyer's News:
Date: Wednesday, March 3, 1999
Source: ELECTRONIC BUYERS NEWS
ELECTRONIC BUYERS NEWS via NewsEdge Corporation : With the first standards for cable
modems due out this month, OEMs and chip makers will begin to rush new products into this exploding
broadband market.
Conexant Inc., formerly Rockwell Semiconductor Systems, this week will announce a single-chip
cable-modem device that complies with the new standard, which has been dubbed the
Data-Over-Cable System Interface Specification (DOCSIS) 1.0.
DOCSIS 1.0 defines simple, fixed-point Internet-access capabilities via cable modems. But there is
more interest over the DOCSIS 1.1 and 1.2 standards, which will enable voice-over-cable via cable
modems. These two standards are expected to be ratified in the third quarter, analysts said.
The cable-modem market is projected to grow from 492,000 units shipped in 1998 to 2.4 million units
by 2002, according to Dataquest Inc., San Jose.
Looking to get a piece of that market, Newport Beach, Calif.-based Conexant is sampling the CN9414,
a product based on an ARM9 RISC chip from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.
The CN9414 integrates a DSP, an RF device, a 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet controller, and other ICs on
the same chip. It also supports 256-QAM constellations in the downstream channel, allowing the chip to
achieve downstream speeds of up to 40 Mbits/s with 6-MHz channel spacing, according to Scott
Keller, product manager at Conexant.
For the upstream channel, the device supports speeds of up to 10 Mits/s, he added. The chip also
complies with DOCSIS 1.0, and is software upgradable to DOCSIS 1.1.
Offered in a 276-pin BGA package, the CN9414 cable modem device sells for $45 in 10,000-unit lots.
The chip will move into production in the third quarter.
Copyright c 1999 CMP Media Inc.
By Mark LaPedus
<<ELECTRONIC BUYERS NEWS -- 03-01-99, p. PG56>> |
