Lucent eyes lower cable modem tag of $300

Electronic News, Dec 16, 1996

Berkeley Heights, N.J.--Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group has unveiled the latest component--a 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) chip--of a six- to eight-piece chipset designed to enable 40 megabits-per-second cable TV modems.

Lucent's plan is to bring the chipset count down to two in 18 months' time to enable off-the-shelf customers to purchase cable modems at a $300--rather than a $500--price point.

The 256 QAM, dubbed the AV6410, combines an A/D converter, a 256-QAM demodulator, an intermediate frequency (IF) passband-to-baseband converter and forward error correction on the same chip. Scott Keller, Lucent marketing manager of cable modem products, said, "We leveraged pockets of expertise from other levels of Lucent--ASICs from our ASIC library, 256 QAM from our HDTV work, modulation from our cable telephony experience, and RF technology."

Other companies specialize in just one particular cable modem technology; for instance, said Mr. Keller, Stanford Telecom develops modulation chips, Broadcom develops demodulation chips. "Lucent is the only company with the breadth of technologies to integrate the components into a few chips," he asserted. "Because we have all those technologies in house, that gives us the ability to integrate the devices to the level where consumers can afford and purchase cable modems at say, a LAN City, rather than lease cable modems from cable companies."

The AV6410 is the most recent addition to Lucent's Cable Modem Silicon Suite, which includes an RF transmitter, transmit/receive data converters, a QPSK/QAM modulator, Ethernet MACs and transceivers, and encryption devices. The term Silicon Suite describes a Lucent strategy to bring a number of devices under one umbrella in order to make the devices more accessible to systems manufacturers (EN, Sept. 30). Mr. Keller said that the next generation AV6410--the crux of the yet-to-come two component chipset--will include a 256 QAM, QPSK modulator, D/A converter and A/D converter on one chip. The generation after that will feature a cable media access controller (MAC).

The AV6410 demodulator chip will be commercially available in sample quantities early in 1Q97. The chip will support demodulation in 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 modes and is expected to be priced at less than $25 in quantities of 100,000 or more.