Broadcom announces high-definition cable digital-transport adapter SoC

Industry’s First Integrated Full-Band Capture E-DTA Device Provides Cable Operators with Faster Channel Change and IP Video Streaming

ORLANDO, Fla. — CableLabs Winter Conference — Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today announced an industry breakthrough with a high definition (HD) cable digital-transport adapter (DTA) system-on-a-chip (SoC) including integrated Full-Band Capture technology. This expansion to Broadcom’s DTA product line offers North American cable operators a competitive advantage when deploying HD-DTA advanced digital cable services and meets the evolving requirements of the FCC.

Broadcom’s BCM7576, the company’s fifth-generation DTA SoC, enables North American cable operators to provide enhanced basic digital HD services, reduce operational support costs and deliver enhanced user features to compete with IP and over-the-top (OTT) video service providers. It also enables enhanced experiences for consumers with fast channel change, advanced user interfaces and IP video streaming.

“Broadcom’s breakthrough E-DTA offering is designed to provide cable operators with a competitive advantage, offering enhanced basic digital cable services to consumers with streaming to a range of in-home IP video consumer electronics devices,” said Dan Marotta, Broadcom’s Executive Vice President and General Manager, Broadband Communications Group. “With the expansion of our product line, North American operators have a compelling new option to reduce costs by digitizing valuable spectrum and providing exciting new services for consumers.”

As more programming is delivered in high definition and approximately 20 million television sets in North America are still connected to only analog cable service, cable operators need to convert these customers to basic digital HD basic services and offer innovative services to compete with the evolving IP and OTT service providers(1). Broadcom’s BCM7576 devices with integrated Full-Band Capture digital tuner technology deliver up to four simultaneous programs by directly digitizing the entire 1GHz cable spectrum, replacing multiple tuners with a single Full-Band Capture digital tuner. An integrated IP Mini Server converts linear content to IP and streams it with DLNA over a home network while also providing HD video to a connected TV.

Key Features

• High-performance CPU doubles the application performance of previous product generations
• OpenGLES2.0 3D GPU support for immersive graphics rich user interfaces
• IP Mini Server streams multiple programs using DLNA with DTCP-IP to consumer electronic devices
• Four QAM demodulators supporting advanced multi-tuner experiences
• Integrated power management hardware to support deep sleep and exceed next generation EnergyStar requirements(2)
• Enhanced Security Architecture with Universal HD (uDTA) Security, CRI-DPA and DTCP-IP support for switchable cardless security for both Cisco Systems and Motorola head-end networks, required by North American cable operators
• Meets FCC requirements for operators to encrypt basic HD services and meets Energy Star requirements for low power operation
• Advanced diagnostics with RF spectrum analyzer facilitates reduced operator support costs

Availability

Broadcom’s BCM7576 HD Cable DTA SoCs are currently sampling. Broadcom will be demonstrating its HD Cable DTA SoCs at the CableLabs Winter Conference.

1. At the end of 2012, 9.6 million households in North America still receive only analog cable service, representing approximately 20 million televisions. ABI Research, 2013.
2. Integrated power management controller lowers system stand-by power to less than 100 milliwatts (mW) and enables DTA systems to reduce average power consumption by up to 65 percent (in a 24 hour period).