Yet another announcement that we longs can be proud of:
biz.yahoo.com
Friday December 10, 8:21 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Broadcom Demonstrates Next-Generation DOCSIS Cable
Modem Chip
Enables Cost-Effective Broadband Gateways for Delivery of Voice, Video and Data
IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 1999--Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq:BRCM - news), a leading provider of integrated circuits
enabling broadband communications to and throughout the home and business, today announced the industry's most advanced single-chip cable
modem, establishing the company's leadership position in silicon integration and performance for the rapidly growing cable modem gateway market.
This integrated chip is a critical step in enabling Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) cable modems and cable gateways
capable of delivering broadband voice, video, and data into and throughout the home and office.
The Broadcom® BCM3350 cable modem chip integrates all of the major silicon components required for a cable modem. Key components in the
chip include:
DOCSIS 1.0/1.1-based Media Access Controller (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY), providing all the real-time DOCSIS components in
silicon, enabling Quality of Service (QoS) to support constant bit rate services like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and video streaming.
80 MHz RISC CPU, providing all the necessary computational resources to run a real-time operating system and TCP/IP stack.
Universal Serial Bus (USB) transceiver, enabling an entirely new class of plug-and-play modems.
10/100BASE-T Ethernet MAC and PHY, substantially reducing the cost of incorporating Ethernet capability on cable modems.
Full Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC) module, enabling product extensions for the rapidly growing Virtual Private Networking (VPN)
market.
High-speed Time Division Multiplex (TDM) interfaces to support four voice channels or one video and two voice channels.
Optimized interface to Broadcom's Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HPNA) silicon to enable the networking of voice, video and data
over existing telephone lines in the home.
''The BCM3350 is a significant milestone in the evolution of the DOCSIS cable modem market. With improved performance, new feature additions
and component integration, the BCM3350 clearly provides the cable industry with a level of integration and performance that is unmatched,'' said
Rich Nelson, Broadcom's Director of Cable TV. ''The BCM3350 is a culmination of three years of expertise and experience gained by Broadcom in
the development of the DOCSIS standard, interoperability testing, and production deployments, incorporated into a single silicon solution enabling
voice, video and data services to be provided via a single broadband gateway and distributed throughout the home with the Broadcom iLine10(TM)
home networking solution.
According to a recent report published by Kinetic Strategies, the North American installed based of cable modems will reach 15.9 million by
year-end 2003 with 83% of homes capable of receiving DOCSIS-based services.
The BCM3350 is based on Broadcom's QAMLink® DOCSIS-complaint transceiver and MAC silicon technology, which is used in over 90% of the
DOCSIS modems shipped today. It supports downstream data rates up to 56 Megabits per second (Mbps) and upstream data rates up to 20 Mbps
and is compliant with DOCSIS versions 1.0 and 1.1.
The USB controller in the device allows for easy hookup, enabling true plug-and-play installation of cable modems. This easy plug-and-play solution
significantly reduces the time, cost and risk factor of deploying cable modems. Integrating the USB feature into the BCM3350 also eliminates another
peripheral chip on the board design, further reducing the cost of cable modems.
The BCM3350 is the first cable modem chip to integrate a 10/100 Ethernet transceiver and MAC. This functionality allows manufacturers to build
cable modems with 10/100 Ethernet network connectivity without having to have a separate Ethernet component, making cable modems less
expensive and easier to build.
A built-in IPSEC module enables vendors to build extensions to their basic cable modem to support VPN applications. According to a recently
published report by In-Stat, the VPN market will end this year at $2.67 billion dollars and grow to $32 billion dollars by 2003 as more corporations
establish satellite office locations and the number of corporate employees working from home increases.
BCM3350 Product Information
The BCM3350 front end includes an improved DOCSIS 1.0 and 1.1-based downstream receiver and upstream transmitter. The integrated
QAMLink 64/256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) receiver in the BCM3350 consists of a 64/256 QAM receiver, a digital demodulator,
programmable filters, tracking loops, adaptive equalizer, standards compliant FEC decoder, and a 10-bit A/D converter. Improvements in the
receiver design have increased performance in several areas while simultaneously reducing the complexity of the RF front-end. Significant
improvements in acquisition time, interference cancellation (multi-path and co-channel) and robustness enable better transmission quality in poor cable
plant conditions, very fast channel changing and an overall reduction in system costs and complexity. The integrated QAMLink upstream transmitter
consists of a QPSK/16 QAM modulator, a programmable DOCSIS- and DAVIC-compliant FEC encoder and a 10-bit D/A converter.
The Media Access Controller (MAC) provides direct silicon support for DOCSIS 1.0 and 1.1-based functions. The MAC implements all of the
low-level, time critical, latency sensitive DOCSIS MAC functions in hardware for maximum throughput and robust performance. Key hardware
features include: Support for 16 Service ID's (SID's) with the ability to perform fragmentation and concatenation, in real-time, for each of the 16
SID's; integrated buffer memory for system-level cost reductions and streamlined processing efficiency; and unsolicited grant support, increasing
efficiency for constant bit rate services such as Voice over IP (VoIP). Additionally, the seamless pipeline to the embedded MIPS-32 processor
enables customization of higher level, non-realtime MAC functions for optimized message handling, creation new messaging options and accelerating
system performance for customers specific applications.
The communication processor is a high-performance 80 MHz MIPS-32 CPU. The embedded processor supports all of the system-level software
requirements for a DOCSIS cable modem, including management of the TCP IP stack, execution of the real-time operating system (RTOS), routing
and bridging functions, interface protocols (i.e., Ethernet, USB), and high-level MAC functions. It also features EJTAG Embedded ICE support and
is fully compatible with existing R3000 development tools.
The Ethernet transceiver performs all of the physical layer interface functions for 100BASE-TX Ethernet in full or half duplex mode over Category
(CAT) 5 twisted pair cable and 10BASE-T Ethernet in full or half duplex mode over CAT 3, 4, or 5 twisted pair cable. The 10/100 Ethernet MAC
incorporates a Media Independent Interface (MII). Broadcom has also incorporated the HP Auto MDIX technology which provides an auto-detect
and auto-switch capability, eliminating the need for crossover cables to correct a common problem of mismatched transmit and receive paths found in
Ethernet implementations.
The device incorporates a full-speed USB 1.1 compliant slave port with an integrated transceiver. This feature provides true plug-and-play between
cable modems and PCs with a USB port, which has been a standard feature in all PC's since 1997.
For Voice IP applications, the device has a direct Time Division Multiplex (TDM) interface that can support 4 voice channels or 1 video and 2 voice
channels. With the increased emphasis on voice over cable, this interface will eliminate costly external circuitry required when adding the DSP and
Codec functions for the addition of PacketCable Voice features to DOCSIS cable modems.
Available today, the BCM3350 is manufactured in a TSMC .22 micron process and packaged in a 352BGA. The BCM3350 is priced at $50 per
chip for quantities of 10,000.
Broadcom provides a complete DOCSIS cable modem reference design (the BCM93350) with integrated home networking (HPNA) enabling
gateway services throughout the home and office. The BCM93350 is a working DOCSIS modem, based on the BCM3350 chip, with direct
connections for Ethernet and USB. Additionally, the BCM93350 integrates the Broadcom HPNA 1/2 silicon solution (BCM4210/BCM4100),
enabling a single cable modem to support multiple PC's over a 10 Mbs network, distributed throughout the home, with no additional wiring. The
BCM93350 comes with a complete development package, which includes schematics, bill of materials, Gerber files, software source code and
dedicated applications engineering support, which enables vendors to productize a DOCSIS cable modem and cable modem gateway.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a leading provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable broadband digital transmission of voice, data and video
content to and throughout the home and within the business enterprise. Using proprietary technologies and advanced design methodologies, the
company designs, develops and supplies integrated circuits for a number of the most significant broadband communications markets, including the
markets for cable set-top boxes, cable modems, high-speed office networks, home networking, direct broadcast satellite and terrestrial digital
broadcast, and digital subscriber line (xDSL). Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and may be contacted at 949-450-8700 or at
www.broadcom.com.
Safe Harbor Statement of Broadcom Corporation under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's
beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us. Words such as ''anticipates,'' ''expects,'' ''intends,'' ''plans,'' ''believes,'' ''may,'' ''will'' and similar
expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain
risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those
expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with the BCM3350 cable modem product line include, but are not
limited to, the timing and successful completion of technology and product development through volume production; the rate at which our present and
future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for cable modem products; delays in the adoption and
acceptance of industry standards in the foregoing markets; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks
of non-qualification or non-certification; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders; the loss of a key customer; the volume
of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; silicon wafer pricing and the availability of foundry and assembly capacity and raw
materials; the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our
products; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims; our ability to specify, develop, complete, introduce, market and transition
to volume production new products and technologies in a timely manner; the effects of new and emerging technologies; the effectiveness of our
product cost reduction efforts; fluctuations in our manufacturing yields and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of
our products; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of
design integration; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations; our ability to retain and hire key executives, technical
personnel and other employees in the numbers, with the capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product
plans; changes in our product or customer mix; the quality of our products and any remediation costs; the effects of natural disasters and other events
beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; potential business disruptions, claims, expenses and other
difficulties resulting from ''Year 2000'' problems in computer-based systems used by us, our suppliers or our customers; general economic conditions
and specific conditions in the markets we address; and other factors. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q,
recent Current Reports on Form 8-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that may affect
our business, results of operations and financial condition. Broadcom undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking
statements for any reason.
Broadcom®, QAMLink®, iLine10(TM) and the Broadcom pulse logo are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in the United
States and certain other countries. Packet Cable is a trademark of CableLabs. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective
owners. |
