Broadcom moves into ADSL chip space

Broadcom, the leading cable modem chip supplier, is taking direct aim on the ADSL space. The Irvine, Calif.-based silicon manufacturer is using this week’s Supercomm Show to introduce a DSL product suite, including a two-chip central office system and a single-chip ADSL customer premises router.

The ADSL market--despite softness in the U.S.--is an attractive space, said John O’Neill, director of Broadcom’s DSL marketing group.

“It’s a strong market in terms of units and dollars, and we think that our technology will be compelling,” O’Neill said. “We were a pioneer in cable modems and the integration that took place in that space, and we’ve emulated that in the DSL space.”

While cable modem and DSL chips are “architecturally identical,” there are several striking differences that make the transition from one to the other a little tricky, O’Neill said.

Broadcom removes the DOCSIS media access control [MAC] and physical layer [PHY] from its cable modem chips and adds those same capabilities for DSL before adding its own slant on serving the DSL market.

“Historically, what is deployed are simple bridges, bridging from the WAN which is DSL, to the LAN, which in the home is typically Ethernet to a PC,” O’Neill said. “This device is much more than that. It’s actually a full-blown router, so you can connect it to other peripherals and do wire-speed routing.”

Additionally, it can bridge traffic from Ethernet to the USB port and has the horsepower to deliver value-added services that should beef up the interest in ADSL modems, he said, indicating that the ADSL market is a ready to start moving.

“Physical layer interoperability probably held back the market somewhat,” he said. “But that’s played out. The transceiver wars are over.”

And the ADSL-cable modem wars are just starting to heat up – especially internationally.

“Outside the U.S., 90% of all POTS customers are within 10 kilofeet of their serving central office,” he said. “Outside the U.S., loop length really isn’t an issue.”

While it remains a drawback for the technology in the U.S., it’s something that could change. With or without a big U.S. market, though, Broadcom is ready to go, with chips now shipping in volume for customer ramps in the third or fourth quarter of this year.