TI slims down DSL chipset

Following up on its unveiling of a new customer premises chip two months ago, Texas Instruments today unveiled a central office chip set that it said reduces overall capital expense on DSLAMS and other equipment.

The AC7 (representing the seventh generation of TI chips) is a 16-port, multi-service ADSL chipset that is comprised of a two-chip architecture. Beyond reducing the number of chips from the previous generation, the new version also integrates virtually every flavor of ADSL on the market, including ADSL, ADSL2, ADSL2+, Annex L, READSL (reach extended ADSL), and legacy ADSL protocols.

“The amount of functionality we can put on a chip is increasing exponentially,” said Kenton Epard, marketing manager of xDSL CO products for TI’s broadband group.

Epard said the goal was to reduce cost for both vendors and operators. On the operational side, for instance, all of the various varieties of ADSL can be supported from any port on a single line card with software provisioning.

“[Carriers] really have to add new services, but they don’t have the cash to support big capital expenses,” Epard said.

For vendors, the two-chip version (versus three-chip sets) reduces the amount of hardware. Additionally, because the AC7 is backward compatible, vendors’ software development expenses are slashed.

“If the OEMs have used TI in the past, the can reuse all of the software,” Epard said.