TI chip set beefs up home gateways

Texas Instruments today announced a new chip set designed to expand voice-over-IP data gateways from strictly residential devices into the small business and SOHO markets.

The company’s TNETV1060 chip, based on the TMS320C55x digital signal and on TI’s Telogy software, combines both voice processing and data routing functions into a single silicon unit.

“We’re seeing a desire by the service providers to have those two functions in one,” said Debbie Greenstreet, CPE business manager for TI.

Among the key features of the new chip set is an expansion capability that lets vendors scale their gateway products to larger business applications requiring additional voice channels. TI accomplishes the expansion through use of a flexible chip-to-chip serial interface, allowing vendors to connect the TNETV1060 to TI's TNETV941, a digital signal processor specifically designed for VoIP applications.

When released for general availability in December, TI expects to get the most interest from vendors shipping into Asia where residential gateways have been the most successful.

“The increase in broadband deployments U.S. is just starting to help,” Greenstreet said.