Intel Jostles To Be Among First In Home Networking

Electronic News, Oct 12, 1998

santa clara, calif. -- Intel, a charter member of the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA) is among the first to introduce chips for this emerging market. The company has begun sampling a home networking chip designed to enable PC and peripheral manufacturers to enable home networking over existing telephone lines. A company spokeswoman said Intel is providing sample quantities of the chip to OEMs at no charge.

The Intel 21145 Phoneline/Ethernet LAN controller is also expected by Intel to help spark development of next-generation PC and peripheral products to connect home computers in North America to each other and to other computing devices such as printers.

This technology can help family members simultaneously access computer files and the Internet, as well as print documents and play computer games, from any PC in the home without changing the way they use their telephone service today. Production quantities of the Intel 21145 are expected to be available in February 1999.

Dan Sweeney, business unit manager of Intel's Home Networking Operation, commented, "For consumers, home networking will help solve the `tug of war' over printers and Internet access that often occurs when a family buys a second PC."

According to market research firm Dataquest, there are currently more than 15 million U.S. homes with two or more personal computers, and this number is expected to grow to 28 million by the year 2003. In addition, Forrester Research estimates that home networking could generate annual sales in excess of $1 billion by 2002.

Intel's 1 megabit-per-second (Mbps) part is based on Intel-developed and tested home networking silicon created in part from a non-exclusive licensing agreement Intel has entered into with Tut Systems for its HomeRun technology. HomeRun technology is expected to enable consumers to create inexpensive in-home local area networks by tapping into the unused bandwidth potential of ordinary copper phone wire. Intel is a minority investor in Tut Systems.

The Intel 21145 is also based on technology that has been tested in more than 200 homes throughout the U.S, and is designed to meet the HomePNA specification, which is expected to be released by the alliance this quarter.

The HomePNA (www. phonelan.org) is an association of companies working together to achieve adoption of a specific phoneline networking industry specification that they project will spur development and introduction of a range of interoperable home networking solutions from a variety of vendors.

Suited for LAN-on-motherboard and adapter card implementations, the Intel 21145 uses a phoneline physical layer interface for 1-Mbps networking inside the home using standard telephone jacks. The Intel 21145 also has an integrated 10-Mbps Ethernet physical interface which would allow home users to interface with broadband devices like UADSL and cable modems.

The Intel 21145 auto-senses whether the PC is connected to a phoneline-based home network or to an Ethernet-based office network, giving platform designers and systems integrators the ability to create a single system that's ready for both home and office networking. Available in both PCI and CardBus interfaces, the device provides management features and Intel said it will meet the Network Device Class Power Management requirements under the OnNow Architecture for PC 98 and PC 99.