Intersil is addressing the need for more reliable, toll grade voice-band telephony in broadband residential and enterprise systems with a new gateway controller IC for use in Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications. The ISL5586 extends the versatility of the company’s existing gateway product family by adding devices that can also be incorporated into Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) compliant cable modem gateway products. Cable modems based on this standard will support voice-band telephony and high-speed data over the cable network infrastructure, offering the potential of low cost telephony in addition to Internet service, in-home networking and cable television for cable subscribers.

Cable modem use is growing fast.

The addition of Ethernet, HomePNA 2.0 and VoIP capability has driven the development of highly integrated circuit solutions designed expressly for cable modems and other devices that converge voice and data streams.

Combining a complex cable modem IC and tuner IC with four of Intersil’s new gateway ICs provides virtually all the silicon content for a voice-enabled cable modem gateway, and greatly reduces the cost and time to market that is normally required for these complicated products.

The ISL5586 meets the telephony requirements for Voice over DSL (VoDSL) integrated access devices (IAD) or voice enabled DSL modems and BWA subscriber terminals, and is compatible with a variety of analogue subscriber equipment such as V.90 modems and fax machines.

Toll quality voice signals are transmitted to an integrated cable modem chip or a voice-band codec over a low level, low noise differential signal interface.

Intersil’s ISL5586 delivers controlled power to the telephone handset while consuming only 57mW in additional overhead power.

The integrated ringing function eliminates the need for costly ring generators and electromechanical relays.

Surf Communication Solutions and Motorola are to provide bundled silicon and software solutions aimed at the high-growth telecommunications access market. The agreement is intended to provide OEMs with the most advanced universal port solution available for converged packet voice, packet fax, V.9x modems and high-speed data services. The access solution is based on Motorola’s leading MSC810x family of StarCore-based DSPs, including the MSC8101 and the recently announced quad-core MSC8102, which will be designed to run the Surf Multi-access Pool (SMP) DSP software solution for packet voice (VoIP), packet Fax (FoIP), V.9x modem, including the recently ratified V.92 standard, and high-speed data services.

In addition to the MSC810x/SMP kit, Motorola and Surf plan to provide a comprehensive suite of tools, including multi-DSP reference designs, Smart Networks-compliant host level interfaces and evaluation platforms.

This access solution is designed to allow leading telecommunication OEMs to integrate turnkey solutions, thus speeding time-to-market and enabling valuable internal engineering resources to concentrate on system level and value-added applications.

The MSC810x family, with the industry’s highest performance DSP announced to date, coupled with its small package size and low power dissipation, is an optimal solution for high-density, signal processing-intensive applications.

Surf’s SMP is a modular software solution that is designed to process multiple channels concurrently supporting a broad suite of access technologies-including voice compression, fax and modem modulation and high-speed data services.

Together, the MSC810x and SMP provide a comprehensive solution for a wide variety of telecommunication access equipment such as Remote Access Servers and Concentrators, Media Gateways, Voice Gateways, Access Routers, and 3G Wireless Interworking Gateways.

“Our strategic alliance with Surf is intended to integrate Motorola’s industry-leading communication processors and networking DSPs with Surf’s proven SMP solution, further providing Smart Networking solutions that are designed to deliver performance, interoperability and scalability”, said Keith Cheney, general manager of Motorola’s Networking and Communication Systems Division.

“This alliance is expected to deliver a solution that frees our customers to focus their development resources on value-added applications, further enabling faster time-to-market for their access products.

We believe that Surf, with its industry accepted and deployed SMP solution is a perfect partner to provide our carrier class customers with a comprehensive universal port access solution”, Cheney continued.

“Surf is delighted with our strategic alliance with Motorola.

Motorola’s Smart Networks Platform, including its StarCore-based MSC810x DSPs, provide excellent technology for the type of software access solutions that Surf provides.

Surf is confident that the MSC810x/SMP kit will be an unbeatable solution for the Internet telephony and data access markets”, said Ron Bleakney, president of Surf Communication Solutions.

The MSC8102/SMP kit is expected to provide over 60 fully convergent (voice/fax/modem) channels; over 80 compressed voice channels with over 64 millisecond carrier class echo cancellation; and up to 600 non-compressed (G.711) voice channels - a capability unmatched by any other product today.

Stockholm-based Net Insight AB has developed a high-performance, single-chip, multi-service switch capable of switching speeds of up to 8Gbit/s by using advanced ASIC technology and implementation expertise from Toshiba Electronics Europe. One of a growing number of partnerships that Toshiba is forming with innovative start-up companies, the relationship with Net Insight covered all aspects of chip development from supply of silicon and IP to design support. Offering a fully integrated multi-service switch core on a single chip, TwintinT is a dynamic, scalable SoC device designed for high-speed, broadband communications applications where Quality of Service (QoS) is a fundamental issue.

The device is based on Toshiba’s 0.25-micron TC240 ASIC technology and combines almost 700,000 gates with 2Mbit SRAM in a 648-pin BGA package measuring just 35 x 35 x 2mm.

A key challenge facing the design engineers was the integration of the onboard SRAM.

Toshiba and Net Insight worked together to resolve the on-chip structure of this memory to ensure full access of on-chip buses to the external I/O while keeping cross-chip connectivity to a minimum.

The result is a device that operates with clock speeds up to 125MHz and features four input and four output ports, each of which can handle a bandwidth of up to 2Gbit/s.

Discussing the project, Net Insight’s CTO Christer Bohm comments: “The high performance and on-chip functionality that the Toshiba ASIC technology provides makes Twintin the ideal engine in switch applications ranging from edge aggregation to backbone transport”.

Gordon Fairley, Toshiba’s ASIC product manager adds: “Toshiba has developed a number of relationships with leading European start-ups.

The relationship with Net Insight demonstrates how these companies can benefit from the technology and expertise available from established semiconductor manufacturers such as Toshiba to rapidly develop their innovative products and capitalise on the current technology boom”.

Intersil has added a new highly integrated quad up-convertor to its CommLinkT family of digital radio ICs for fixed basestation applications. The new device allows easy upgrading of existing basestations to handle the latest higher speed protocols with higher throughput rates. The new quad up-convertor can be programmed to handle up to four different cellular channels and multiple protocols simultaneously.

For example, it can be programmed to handle both legacy and newer third generation (3G) cellular standards simultaneously or as they come online, including GSM, IS-136 TDMA, EDGE, IS-95, CDMA (CDMA2000 and UMTS) and AMPS.

The converter’s ability to handle the latest high-speed protocols at high output rates of up to 80MSPS allows designers to upgrade existing base-stations to overcome their inherent frequency capacity and throughput limitations.

The CommLink ISL5217 up-convertor is designed for use in the transmit section in wireless cellular basestations.

A companion part, the ISL5216 performs complementary functions in the receive section of the base-station.

The ISL5217 features a maximum output rate of 80MSPS and supports input sample rates as high as 5MSPS.

Multiple devices can be cascaded digitally for multichannel applications.

“The new up-convertor enhances Intersil’s position as a supplier of complete digital radio solutions for the cellular market”, said Juan Garcia, marketing manager of CommLink products at Intersil.

“CommLink devices are specifically designed to support the expanding use of digital radio and wireless Internet applications across multiple cellular including 2nd and 3rd generation standards with faster speeds and greater throughput”.

Strengthening its position as the leading enabler for driving Gigabit to the desktop, National Semiconductor has announced the DP83862, a low-cost, highly integrated dual-port 10/100/1000 physical layer transceiver. This new solution, now shipping to key customers, provides the lowest cost per port, Gigabit over copper physical layer solution. With its very low power consumption and high performance, the Dual Gig PHYTER is ideal for such applications as high-density Gigabit switches, dual port Gigabit node cards, and high-speed uplinks.

Together with National’s industry-leading 10/100/1000 Gigabit over copper network interface card (NIC) reference design, this new Gigabit over copper transceiver has put National at the forefront to deliver a complete end-to-end network solution.

The DP83862 dual Gig PHYTER is National’s third-generation, full-feature physical layer transceiver with integrated PMD sub layers to support 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T Ethernet protocols.

Based on a field proven architecture, the DP83862 Gig PHYTER is manufactured on the company’s state-of-the-art 0.18-micron CMOS technology, providing the highest level of integration at very low power consumption.

This also provides National’s customers with an ease of mind regarding availability and meeting their expected cycle time requirements including the unexpected upsides.

“With the introduction of the DP83862 Dual Gig PHYTER, National now becomes the only vendor who is able to provide an end-to-end network solution with the optimal combination of price, performance and power consumption”, said Rick Walker, European Marketing Manager of the Network Products Group at National Semiconductor.

“With a roadmap that continually offers improvements on all of the network applications our customers care about, it is clear that National is committed to driving Gigabit to the desktop”.

The DP83862 Gig PHYTER is the industry’s first to provide PHY level cyclical redundancy checking (CRC), on received packets and PHY level CRC generation for test mode transmit packets.

It supports JPAG, and Auto media dependent interface crossover (Auto-X) that automatically detects and corrects wiring mishandling such as swapped wires in addition it also provides for and automatically corrects reversed polarity.

The DP83862 is designed for easy implementation of 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN Switches.

Each of the two ports interfaces directly to Twisted Pair media via an external transformer.

This device interfaces directly to the media access controller (MAC) layer through the IEEE 802.3u Standard Media Independent Interface (MII) of the IEEE 802.3u Gigabit Media Independent Interface (GMII).

It also supports the reduced pin count serial GMII (SGMII) interface with eight pins per port.

Major features of the DP83862 Dual Gig PHYTER includes: single Quad TX-Transformer interface for all speeds; adaptive equalisation and Baseline Wander compensation; IEEE 802.3u Auto-Negotiation and parallel detection; 3.3 v/1.8 v MAC interfaces; LED support; management register set; acceptance of 125 or 25MHz clock input, among others.

The feature-rich ZL30116 and ZL30119 phase locked loops are the lowest jitter and smallest devices for managing Sonet/SDH Stratum 3 synchronisation at OC-48/STM-16 rates.
Zarlink Semiconductor has introduced the industry’s first single-chip ultra-low-jitter synchronisers for Sonet/SDH multiservice applications. The feature-rich ZL30116 and ZL30119 PLLs (phase locked loops) are the lowest jitter and smallest devices for managing Sonet/SDH Stratum 3 synchronisation at OC-48/STM-16 rates. With the explosive growth of Ethernet and other packet-based traffic, carriers must protect their investments in Sonet/SDH infrastructure while accommodating multiple traffic types.

Network equipment vendors are developing Sonet/SDH multiservice products, including MSPPs (multiservice provisioning platforms) and MSSPs (multiservice switching platforms) that allow carriers to mix voice and packet services by only replacing edge network elements.

Industry research values this market at US $3.5 billion in 2005 with equipment installations predicted to grow 26% in 2006.

In turn, semiconductor companies are delivering next-generation ADMs (add-drop multiplexers), which are small, high-performance system-on-chip devices that process packetised traffic more efficiently.

ADMs require multiple clocks to deal with multiple traffic types and only Zarlink’s new timing chips offer ADM designers a comprehensive set of Stratum 3 clock synthesis capabilities while meeting OC-48/STM-16 performance requirements.

Leading network equipment vendors are currently evaluating Zarlink’s new PLLs for their next-generation designs.

The highly programmable ZL30116 and ZL30119 chips generate three independent clock families, eliminating the need for external dividers or clock-multiplying PLLs.

The devices match the reference frequency requirements of any commercial Sonet/SDH PHY (physical interface), and deliver the industry’s widest range of selectable output frequencies for low-jitter clocks: 19.44, 38.88, 51.84, 77.76, 311.04 and 622.08MHz.

The ZL30116 device implements the market’s most extensive suite of master/slave clock redundancy capabilities.

This chip is the only synchroniser to embed zero delay PLL capabilities that compensate for external clock propagation delays to meet the stringent phase alignment requirements of AdvancedTCA clock buses.

Digital PLL-based synchronisers are used in Sonet/SDH equipment to manage numerous clocks within a multiservice switching environment.

However, most digital PLLs generate too much jitter for interfaces at rates above OC-3, necessitating a separate analogue PLL to ‘clean up’ the noise.

Multichip combinations or modules may be as large as one square inch.

Zarlink is first to deliver a single-chip synchroniser capable of generating less than 1ps of jitter.

The ZL30116 Stratum 3 system synchroniser and ZL30119 line card synchroniser are pin-compatible and measure just 9 x 9mm.

The ZL30116 and ZL30119 devices provide superior network synchronisation features including holdover and hitless reference switching.

The chips ensure continued operation during network disruptions or upgrades by monitoring the input reference clocks and providing hitless reference switching on detecting a bad or failed reference clock.

The PLLs maintain stable and reliable output clocks in the presence of network or intra-system jitter and wander conditions.

If the source of network synchronisation is temporarily lost, the devices automatically switch into holdover mode and continue to generate output clocks based on data collected from past reference signals.

The ZL30116 and ZL30119 PLLs are available now.

LSI’s next-generation DVD recorder chips based on the Domino architecture now integrate the latest YesDVD Recorder 1.5 software from YesVideo.
LSI Logic and YesVideo have extended their partnership through the integration of the new YesDVD Recorder 1.5 software into the LSI next-generation DVD recorder chips based on the Domino architecture. Designed for integration by DVD manufacturers, the patented YesDVD technology available through the LSI DVD recorder product line enables real-time indexing of home video and TV broadcast video recordings, and provides on-screen disc menus and intelligently selected chapters with picture thumbnails for easy navigation. ‘Just as electronic programme guides allow people to record what they want, our software enables consumers to enjoy their home video and TV programme recordings the way they want to watch them’, said Greg Ayres, Chief Operating Officer for YesVideo.

‘We’re pleased to continue our successful relationship with LSI to bring these advanced features to the DVD recorder market’.

YesDVD Recorder 1.5 software effectively analyses broadcast content recorded to hard disc and creates chapters at logical points on the hard disc.

The software provides a smart, on-screen menu that provides easy-to-understand prompts for creating a YesDVD, with just a click of one button on the remote control.

With support for multiple video recordings on a single DVD, YesDVD software automatically creates up to 54 chapter scenes by detecting the best images from the video source, as either home video or broadcast TV content.

YesDVD software then creates a DVD menu with thumbnail images representing each scene for easy searching and viewing.

YesDVD also creates three highlight videos with music overlays.

A customised YesDVD cover with thumbnail images can be printed simply by inserting the finished YesDVD disc into a Windows-based PC.

Consumers can select cover sizes to fit either standard DVD cases or jewel cases.

‘Like LSI, YesVideo is always seeking new ways to make viewing and transferring video content easy and enjoyable for consumers’, said Tim Vehling, Vice President of Marketing for the LSI Consumer Products Group.

‘Utilising our extensive market share in the DVD recorder market, we’re pleased to bring these and the other features enabled by the Domino architecture to our consumer electronics customers’.

The LSI line of Domino DVD recorder processors consists of full-featured, highly integrated DVD recorder solutions that address worldwide requirements.

Driving the growth of the DVD recorder market, Domino processors include unique features such as the YesDVD Recorder 1.5 software and the LSI DVFX proprietary pre- and post-processing technologies, which provide advanced progressive scan output and impressive noise handling on analogue inputs for visibly superior video quality.

Additional advantages of the Domino architecture include Direct Digital Dub technology that simplifies the transfer of personal digital content from a camcorder to DVD over FireWire, with one-touch control via a single remote.

With a system-level approach, LSI reduces design complexity and provides system designers with considerable savings on the overall bill of materials.

Belkin is using the Agere ET1011 gigabit Ethernet chip in its USB 2.0 adapter cards.
Belkin Corporation, the global leader in connectivity solutions, is using the Agere ET1011 gigabit Ethernet chip in its Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 adapter cards. Measuring approximately the length of a business card, these adapters plug into desktop and notebook computers, as well as other end user gadgets used in corporate and home offices, to boost their data speeds. Belkin plans to start shipping its USB adapters this month.

‘Agere’s stellar customer support heavily influenced our decision to move forward with Agere’s single-chip solution’, said Mike Chen, Director of Product Management - Networking with Belkin.

‘Three other key factors were Agere’s industry-longest cable distance error free performance, extremely low power, low bill of material (BOM) and extensive digital technology expertise’.

Belkin will use Agere’s ET1011 PHY chip in its USB 2.0 gigabit Ethernet adapter card.

This card boosts data speeds up to 300Mbit/s for computer and other consumer products.

This is three times faster than 10/100Mbit/s Fast Ethernet technology available today.

Tripling the speed enables faster file transfers and multimedia downloads via a USB 2.0 port.

Based on its patented TruePHY gigabit Ethernet technology and cable diagnostic software, Agere’s ET1011 makes possible error-free cabling performance at 140m while consuming a very low 750mW of power in typical applications.

This power consumption is approximately 15% lower power than the nearest competing chip.

Agere offers the chip in two multilayer carrier chip package sizes.

Currently, Agere offers 84- and 68-pin versions.

The chip that houses 68 pins provides nearly 20% fewer than the nearest competing chip.

The dongle application uses the low-cost 68-pin version.

The 68-pin version supports a reduced gigabit media independent interface (RGMII), while the 84-pin version, in addition to RGMII also supports GMII, ten bit interface (TBI) and reduced ten bit interface.

The chip’s dimensions are 10 x 10 x 1mm.

‘Working with a global leader in connectivity solutions meshes with Agere’s sharpening focus to offer complete and economical hardware and software silicon solutions to our customers’, said Ngozi Bell, Director of Marketing for the Enterprise and Networking Division of Agere Systems.

‘Working with top-notch companies such as Belkin is helping to take Agere’s gigabit Ethernet chip business to a higher and broader level of penetration throughout enterprise and small/home office applications’.

This announcement builds on Agere’s recent momentum of engaging customers to select its portfolio of gigabit Ethernet chips.

During the past two months, the company has announced that SMC and Accton also are using Agere gigabit Ethernet chips.

Other equipment manufacturers also have chosen Agere’s gigabit Ethernet chips during this same time span, although have yet to be publicly announced.

Design of Systems on Silicon (DS2) is showcasing its award-winning 200Mbit/s powerline communications technology at CES with a live networking demo.
Bringing the future of home entertainment to the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show, Design of Systems on Silicon (DS2) is showcasing its award-winning 200Mbit/s powerline communications (PLC) technology at CES with a live networking demo. Designed to show the power of PLC today, the DS2 ‘home’ uses the powerline network to transmit bandwidth-intensive applications, such as IPTV, video on demand (VOD), HDTV and VoIP to everyday consumer electronics appliances. Additionally, Samsung, AMD, Corinex and ST and T are featuring DS2 technology in their home networking displays.

‘DS2 is the first company to deliver on the promise of PLC, and our demonstration at CES proves that our technology transmits high-quality entertainment content over existing home wiring systems today’, said Jorge Blasco, President and CEO, DS2.

‘Many consumer electronics manufacturers in several parts of the world are already testing and installing our technology because PLC solves many of the problems that plague other home networking solutions, such as quality-of-service or bandwidth requirements’.

Visitors to the DS2 booth will view and experience content from VOD streams, two HDTV channels, two VoIP terminals and four standard TV channels, all running simultaneously over the same PLC network with outstanding QoS levels.

A full range of DSS9XXX-based chips will power PLC applications on consumer electronics devices from Acbel, AMD, Ascom, Corinex, Digital Deck, Elcon, Espial, Mitsubishi, Pace, Samsung, Schneider Electric, Sumitomo, Suniwell, ST and T and Toyocom.

The large variety of vendors with interoperable products already in volume production and displayed at several booths at the CES confirms the leadership of DS2’s 200Mbit/s technology, for BPL-access and for in-home consumers electronics and data networks.

A Norwegian-based manufacturer of real-time video-over-IP solutions for the professional broadcast market has chosen Arrow as its preferred electronics supplier.
T-VIPS, the Norwegian-based manufacturer of real-time video-over-IP solutions for the professional broadcast market, has chosen Arrow as its preferred electronics supplier. In addition to the broad range of products on the Arrow linecard, the relationship is also based upon Arrow’s ability to provide technical engineering support as well as advanced and flexible supply chain solutions. T-VIPS manufactures video gateways and solutions designed to allow professional broadcasters to distribute high quality video over an Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure.

As the company’s preferred electronics supplier, Arrow is providing a wide range of critical components including DSPs, FPGAs and high-performance devices that enable T-VIPS to handle up to eight ASI (asynchronous serial interface) streams including two dimensional FEC (forward error correction) over an IP network.

In addition to products, T-VIPS is making extensive use of Arrow’s technical engineering support capabilities, which includes local field application engineers (FAEs).

This support includes early involvement in the design stage of the product development process to ensure the most efficient designs.

Discussing Arrow’s preferred supplier status, Johnny Dolvik, the CEO of T-VIPS comments: ‘Arrow has been a key supporter of T-VIPS since we formed the company in 2004 and we see the selection as preferred electronics supplier as strategically important to our business’.

‘Arrow’s broad product portfolio, coupled with advanced supply chain solutions, ensures that we have rapid access to all of the components we need to design, develop and manufacture our range of next-generation video-over-IP hardware’.

‘At the same time, comprehensive engineering support that includes very knowledgeable local engineers is instrumental in helping us to develop optimised and highly efficient products that meet the requirements of the professional broadcast market’.