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Linley Tech 2006 Series: Join us on January 25 at the DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose for a one-day seminar on CPU cores and other licensable intellectual property (IP). This event is intended for designers of ASICs and SoCs (systems on a chip). This event is event sponsored by: Freescale, Tensilica, ARC International, and SafeNet. WiQuest Samples Gigabit UWB Chip Set Last week, UWB-startup WiQuest announced sampling of its first product. The WQST101/110 two-chip set implements a complete WiMedia PHY and MAC. In addition to supporting WiMedia-standard data rates up to 480Mbps, WiQuest's product supports a proprietary 1Gbps mode. WiQuest claims a range of 5 meters at 1Gbps, 10 meters at 480Mbps, and a maximum range of 30 meters at a lower data rate. Like Alereon and Wisair, WiQuest builds its WQST101 RF transceiver (or AFE) in SiGe technology. Unlike those competitors, however, WiQuest has integrated a full WiMedia MAC in its WQST110 CMOS baseband chip. As a result, the chip set supports Wireless USB (WUSB) host and device applications. WiQuest also claims support for TCP/IP, but WiMedia has not yet released the WiNet specification. The WQST110 offers a choice of 32-bit PCI, generic 16-bit, or High-Speed USB 2.0 interfaces. Thanks to the fully integrated USB interface, WiQuest's USB-to-WUSB dongle design requires only the WQST101/110 chip set, regulators, an EEPROM, one crystal, a T/R switch, and a bandpass filter. The company did not announce chip pricing, but WiQuest claims a BOM cost in the low $20s. In addition to chip samples, WiQuest announced immediately availability of evaluation kits. WiQuest's announcement touted the WQST101/110 as the industry's first gigabit UWB chip set. While we agree with this assertion, the completeness of WiQuest's solution is what really sets it apart from its announced WiMedia competitors. Although a number of vendors have demonstrated FPGA-based MAC designs, we believe WiQuest is the first vendor to sample a WiMedia MAC implementation in (custom) silicon. Thus, the UWB newcomer is far from late to market. —Bob Complete
coverage of UWB and Wireless USB appears in our recent report
A
Guide to Next-Generation Wireless. Targeting an emerging market for low-cost network-attached storage (NAS), PMC-Sierra rolled out an integrated processor for this application. The device combines a 170MHz CPU, the usual system logic, an encryption unit, and one or two IDE controllers. Additional storage options (such as serial ATA) can be supported via the optional PCI bus. Although the new MSP2200 family uses the same product numbering as PMC's other low-cost processors acquired from Brecis, the new devices are not derived from the Brecis architecture. In fact, the MSP2200 is PMC's first-ever ARM-based processor. A PMC representative claimed that the CPU architecture in this type of embedded device is irrelevant and that the choice of ARM was merely opportunistic. We suspect that future NAS products will opportunistically hew to the company strategy and incorporate MIPS CPUs. With consumers digitizing photos, videos, music, and even television shows, they need reliable storage that can be shared within the home. The same NAS technology used in businesses can solve this problem in the home, but it must be inexpensive and extremely simple to install and use. Highly integrated devices such as the MSP2200 will enable these SOHO NAS boxes. The PMC chip competes with Broadcom's BCM4780, the so-called NAS-on-a-chip; although both companies offer a complete NAS software stack, the 4780 does not integrate a hard-drive interface, requiring an external IDE or SATA chip. Infineon's ADM8668 includes a single IDE port, but the customer must write their own NAS software. As this new market grows, however, PMC is likely to face stronger competition. —Linley Complete coverage of the BCM4780 and ADM8668 appears in our recent report A Guide to Communications Processors. KeyEye has announced sample availability of its initial products, a line of 10Gbps transceivers. With 40 employees, the Sacramento startup has raised more than $21 million in two rounds of funding and developed its first three products. All of these transceiver products use the company's Echowave architecture for 10Gbps performance. Echowave's key elements are an adaptive equalizer and echo canceller for crosstalk, which causes particularly nasty impairments at 10Gbps. The adaptive equalizer allows the transceiver to dynamically adjust for changing environments such as seasonal temperatures changes. The transceivers also integrate scramblers, 2/4-wire hybrids, and encoders. Keyeye uses PAM-4 multilevel modulation, which is different from the coding used in the forthcoming 10Gbps Ethernet or 10GBase-T standard. At less than 4W, however, the power dissipation for these transceivers will be significantly less than for early 10GBase-T designs. KeyEye's product line comprises the KX1000, KX1001, and KX1003, which target interconnect application for stackable switches, system interconnects, and InfiniBand interconnects, respectively. The KX1000/1 integrate a XAUI transceiver to connect with an Ethernet MAC or an Ethernet switch. The KX1003 integrates an InfiniBand transceiver to connect with an InfiniBand switch or HCA. All three devices can use Cat6 wiring as the interconnect between systems. The transceiver can be placed in an optical module such as X2, Xpak, or Xenpack, which can be connected to an existing switch or adapter. Compared to traditional optical modules, these copper modules should cost significantly less. KeyEye has taken the lead in reducing costs for 10Gbps interconnect. Compared with CX-4, InfiniBand, or optical interconnects, the KX100x products reduce system cost significantly as well as increasing the range to more than 25 meters. Using MSA modules, these products can be applied quickly to existing designs. The promise of standard 10GBase-T transceivers, however, may stall broad adoption of Keyeye's transceivers. —Jag Further coverage of KeyEye and its competitors appears in our report A Guide to High-Speed Interconnects.
As broadband deployments continue to rise, VDSL and PON will lead future growth. According to our market forecast, VDSL (including VDSL2) chip revenue will grow to more than $500 million in 2008, with PON revenue strong but trailing at nearly $250 million. Our new report, A Guide to Next-Generation Broadband Interface Chips provides a more detailed forecast of revenue, ASP, and port growth for the VDSL and PON chips from 2005 to 2010. Like all of our reports, this one also provides a detailed explanation and comparison of the products and technologies driving this market. We explain the differences among the various DSL and PON standards and detail the performance each can deliver at a given range. We pay particular attention to the newest standards: VDSL and VDSL2 as well as EPON and GPON. Product highlights include:
The report also describes VDSL2 chips from
Broadcom and Conexant as well as PON chips
from Centillium. Several other vendors
that are developing
VDSL2 and PON
silicon are also profiled. This report is now available
for immediate shipment. For more information on this
comprehensive
report,
visit our web site. To receive The Linley Wire via e-mail, click here
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