Microtune expands cable modem chipsets

(Telephony) Microtune has added an RF upstream amplifier to its cable modem chipset offering and will sell it as either a standalone product or integrated with its RF tuner chip in a modular offering.

"It's a complementary product," said John Norsworthy, Microtune's chief technical officer. "We sell a modular level solution for all of the RF and analog content required for a DOCSIS modem."

This solution includes an analog tuner, diplexer and amplifier. Until now, Microtune has been "a big customer" for upstream amplifiers.

"Now we're manufacturing our own and offering it to other parties as a standalone amplifier," he said. "It improves the margins of our module level products and it's a standalone silicon product that will improve revenues because not everybody buys the fully integrated module."

Norsworthy said that Microtune is staking its claim to delivering RF analog technology for cable modems, cable set-tops, and, eventually, telephony network interface units.

The return amplifiers gives Microtune full-featured solutions.

"This is another thing to help solidify our position as the leading RF systems solution provider," he said. "We want to sell chips for people who want to do chip-on-a-board implementations. We also sell this technology packaged in modules because a lot of people like fully tested RF solutions."

For now, he said, the new RF amplifier technology will be used in DOCSIS cable modems and cable set-tops with an overlaid DOCSIS communications scheme. The future includes expansion to telephony products.

"This type of technology will definitely find its way into the telephony side because people are going to want to have some sort of outdoors interface unit that's going to have a tuner/amplifier technology like this," he noted.

That technology would translate cable-compatible signals to typical phone-compatible signals "so it's transparent to the user."

ZyXEL and Joohong Information and Communications have implemented the new combination into their cable modems and Cisco Systems and Ole Communications have plans to migrate to it as their upstream amplifier, Norsworthy said.