ADSL licensing gains momentum

Electronic News, March 23, 1998 by Will Wade

San Jose, Calif.--Rockwell Semiconductor Systems has signed a licensing agreement with PairGain Technologies to use the telecommunications company's chip designs and later modify and sell them as Rockwell products. Separately, Advanced Micro Devices has acquired asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology by licensing it from Alcatel, and will also later modify the technology.

The future of high-bandwidth data transmission technology seems so bright that just about everybody wants a pair of ADSL shades. And for companies that are behind the curve on developing their own ADSL chips, the best approach to getting into this exploding market is to buy the capability, as demonstrated by the pair of licensing deals.

Until earlier this year, the future of large-scale ADSL deployment seemed uncertain, hindered mainly by an absence of standards and a lack of cooperation between the telcos and the high-tech industry.

But the sudden emergence of the Universal ADSL Working Group (UAWG) in February dramatically changed the picture.

An industry-wide consortium of chipmakers, systems vendors and telephone carriers aimed at developing a standard specification for ADSL to be used in the home market, the UAWG has optimistically predicted that products could be on retail shelves as early as this Christmas. Even though many observers doubt this schedule, many in the industry have been scrambling to develop or acquire their own ADSL programs (EN, Feb. 2).

No Easy Solution

Both Rockwell and AMD had made efforts to develop their own xDSL products, but both faced problems in delivering their own chips to the suddenly-expanding market. Tom Eby, VP of strategic marketing for AMD's communications division, declined to go into details on the company's failed development efforts, but said, "We examined all our options in terms of time-to-market, and we came to the conclusion that this (licensing agreement) was the best course of action."

Rockwell faced a significant technological hurdle, because its ADSL chips were developed around a format called QAM. While QAM can be an effective way to pump bits down a fat ADSL pipe, the American National Standards Institute's approved format for ADSL is based on an incompatible scheme known as DMT. Even more significantly, the UAWG has announced that its own version of ADSL will also be based on DMT.

ANSI-standard ADSL can transmit data at up to about eight megabits-per-second downstream, and 700 kilobits-per-second upstream. The UAWG is working on a format known as G.lite that, at 1.5M downstream and about 400K upstream, is slower but holds a significant advantage over its speedier cousin.

Standard ADSL requires a line-splitter to be installed at any site using the technology, a costly and time-consuming process that is seen as likely to inhibit home deployment. To make a stronger play for the massive home consumer market, G.lite will not require a splitter or any other additional hardware. But both are based on DMT.

Other Technologies

Other companies, notably Rockwell's partner in both ADSL interoperability testing and marketing efforts, Northern Telecom, have also used QAM technology. U.S. West, a phone company which currently has one of the most advanced ADSL test programs in the country, is also using QAM-based systems. In effect, all of these companies have bet on the wrong horse, and lost.

Rockwell had earlier stated it would have to shift its efforts in order to adopt DMT-based technology since it appeared there would be no future market for QAM chips, and observers were not surprised by the company's move to license PairGain's ADSL capability.

Rockwell and PairGain have previously collaborated in other areas, and Raouf Halim, VP and GM of Rockwell's network access division, said the agreement made tremendous business sense. "This is a marriage made in heaven," he noted. "PairGain is the leading vendor of telco DSL systems and Rockwell is the leader in the consumer modem chipset market."

PairGain has a dominant role in HDSL systems, another standardized xDSL version used primarily for T1 telephone lines. The company designs its own chips, but George Zimmerman, chief scientist at PairGain, stressed that it is not a semiconductor firm. That means an established chip-maker like Rockwell will bring numerous strengths to the partnership.

Rockwell will initially gain exclusive rights to use PairGain's Falcon chipset, which delivers ANSI-standard ADSL capabilities, and will pay royalties and licensing fees for two years. The two companies will also participate in a technology exchange and work together on a G.lite product, and both are participating in the UAWG efforts.

This is similar to AMD's recent agreement with Alcatel. The European company also produces both ADSL chips and systems, and AMD will initially be reselling its products. Mr. Eby said AMD will later be producing its own version of the Alcatel chips, and has the right to create derivative designs that support current or emerging ADSL standards. Both AMD and Alcatel are also part of the UAWG.