Rockwell Semiconductor Systems Announces Plans for Multi-Function Home Networking Chipsets

Business Wire, June 24, 1998

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 1998--

Rockwell joins Home Phoneline Networking Alliance and will leverage expertise in multi-function communications technology to give consumers a single, versatile solution for voice, networking and Internet connectivity over a home's existing phone lines

Rockwell Semiconductor Systems today announced that the company plans to release a family of multi-function chipsets that will provide a combination of home networking plus 56Kbps V.90 and Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) modem capability. The chipsets will comply with specifications which are being developed by the recently announced Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA).

Rockwell's planned family of integrated home networking and modem solutions will be full-featured implementations of the forthcoming HomePNA home-networking specifications. They will combine home networking plus V.90 and ADSL modem capabilities into one convenient, low-cost solution that uses existing, in-home telephone wiring to connect multiple PCs, peripherals and other intelligent devices at a speed of 1Mbps. Users will simply connect products using the Rockwell chipsets into their standard RJ-11 telephone jacks.

Rockwell's first product will be introduced by year's end, and will provide a combination of home networking and V.90 modem capabilities. Future products will provide increasing levels of connectivity, including built-in support for ADSL. This will enable such key capabilities as allowing a user to simultaneously use the telephone, transmit home networking data, and access the Internet.

"Rockwell is uniquely positioned to offer a complete communications solution for the emerging home networking market," said Kevin Strong, division director of marketing for Digital Communications Products within Rockwell's Personal Computing Division.

"These products will require the same kind of versatile, multi-function connectivity technology that we have pioneered in products like our RipTide audio-and-modem chips, our LANfinity 10/100 Mbps LAN-and-modem chips, and our recently announced combo V.90/ADSL client-side modem chipsets," Strong added. "Combining home networking with V.90 and ADSL modem capabilities into a single solution will reduce costs, provide a single card for easy system integration, and present one convenient RJ-11 jack to the user."

Rockwell is a founding member of the HomePNA, which was announced earlier this week. The group is a unified industry effort aimed at creating standards-based products for easy-to-use, reliable and affordable home connectivity over existing telephone lines. The HomePNA has selected Tut Systems' 1Mbit/s networking technology as the basis for a first-generation home networking specification. The HomePNA will define a technology roadmap for a next-generation, backward-compatible specification that reaches to 10Mbit/s solutions and beyond, and will submit these specifications to industry standards bodies.

Additionally, the HomePNA will work to ensure product interoperability, coexistence with complementary in-home solutions such as those being developed by the HomeRF group, and compatibility with Internet access technologies such as 56Kbps V.90 and the emerging "always on" splitterless 1.5Mbit/s Universal ADSL (UADSL) standard.

Industry-standard home networking products will enable a variety of new home computing opportunities including shared Internet access using a single phone line. Simultaneous access over a single phone line will lower monthly bills and eliminate conflicts between applications using the same phone line. Additionally, home networking products will enable users to share files, printers, scanners and storage devices among multiple family members, and are likely to spawn new capabilities for multi-system data backup and networked gaming.

Home networking products are also a key component of Rockwell's strategic push into a broad range of interrelated personal communications electronics markets. The same home networking technology used to connect PCs and peripherals can also be used to connect a variety of intelligent consumer appliances including TV-based digital set-top boxes, Internet phones, digital cameras and companion multifunction printers. "Rockwell offers a unique mix of semiconductor technology spanning all of these products," Strong said. "In addition, we have the specialized semiconductor design and manufacturing expertise to combine these core silicon blocks on ever-smaller chips as the home networking phenomenon leads to the convergence of these functions in exciting new consumer products."

Rockwell Semiconductor Systems and Electronic Commerce is based in Newport Beach. Rockwell Semiconductor Systems is a leading worldwide provider of semiconductor system solutions for personal communications electronics products used in personal computing, network access, personal imaging, wireless communications and digital infotainment. These product platforms offer a variety of technology convergence opportunities and each leverages the company's 30-year mixed-signal computing heritage in such key areas as signal-processing algorithms, signal conversion, and communications protocols.