Broadcom Announces Industry's First MoCA®-Integrated SoC Solutions for High Definition Set-Top Box and Gateway Applications

Broadcom® Integrated MoCA 1.1+ Technology Significantly Reduces the Cost, Complexity and Power Requirements to Deploy Whole-Home Media Distribution

LAS VEGAS — 2009 International CES — Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced the industry’s first high definition (HD) set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions with Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA®) integration that allow cable, satellite and IP-network service providers worldwide to cost effectively transform a subscriber’s existing coax cable infrastructure into a whole-home media distribution network. With set-top box and gateway applications enabled with Broadcom® products, service providers can now offer whole-home digital media distribution services that let subscribers securely access, store and share multiple types of digital media content including HDTV programs, video on demand (VoD), digital video recorder (DVR), Internet content, video, music, photos and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).

“Over 80 percent of all homes in the U.S. have multiple cable outlets. By utilizing the existing coax network, service providers are able to offer an inexpensive way to deploy networked set-top boxes to meet the needs of multi-room DVR and telco TV distribution,” said Joyce Putscher, Principal Analyst for In-Stat. “The number of North American households with in-home provider network nodes that use protocols over coax will see healthy growth from 2007-2009.”

To satisfy this market demand, Broadcom announced two new HD multi-format video decoder SoCs with integrated MoCA at this week’s 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show. The MoCA-integrated chips enable cable, satellite and IP-network equipment manufacturers worldwide to drive the next evolution of networking in the digital home by utilizing existing coax wire infrastructures.

“Because coax is already in the bulk of U.S. homes, Broadcom’s MoCA-integrated solutions are a low cost and efficient way to network the next generation digital home to enable whole-home media distribution,” said Dan Marotta, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Broadcom’s Broadband Communications Group. “These solutions satisfy the growing demand for whole-home DVR services, including the ability to record and watch digital content anywhere in the home, while also reducing the cost and complexity of deployment.”

Announced today are the Broadcom BCM7420 and BCM7410 video decoder SoCs with integrated MoCA technology. The BCM7420 advances media center system integration with a dual high definition 1.0/1.1+ MoCA modem, a physical layer (PHY) device and an on-chip radio frequency (RF) transceiver to securely access, store and share multiple types of digital media content. The BCM7410 provides the same capabilities as the BCM7420, but provides single HD media center system integration and/or client STB services (also with an integrated MoCA modem) for a cost effective gateway or client system. Both video decoder SoCs combine 1080p/60 video quality, an integrated 1394a media access controller (MAC) and PHY interface, Tru2way™-ready with on-chip MCARD support, and a 3D graphics engine for an advanced user interface.

The BCM7410 and BCM7420 each feature dynamic power management controllers that provide a very power efficient ecosystem, capable of shutting down unused system components in real-time. Even though the video decoders provide the lowest sustained power, they continue to remain aware of network events both in the home and from multiple service operators (MSO) access points, representing a perfect complement to the MoCA-connected home network. In addition to its power management capabilities, the new BCM7410 thin client solution allows for the centralization of tuners, conditional access and hard drives that can also reduce cost and power consumption in the home. Both chips offer support for Energy Star® and are European Code of Conduct compliant.

By combining these two features in a gateway/client architecture, these new video decoders are the industry’s first HDTV STB chips to feature the ability to “sleep with their eyes open” – which has become a key requirement in managing the whole home DVR network. As an example, a BCM7420-enabled gateway can be in standby-passive mode yet still respond to DVR requests from BCM7410-enabled client solutions.

Also included is support for Digital Living Network Alliance(SM) (DLNA®) technology to facilitate the easy sharing of content between DLNA-enabled devices. With DLNA technology, consumers can locate and enjoy digital content anywhere on their home network and effortlessly move or stream this content between DLNA-connected devices. The BCM7410 and BCM7420 are the first DLNA-enabled SoCs to integrate MoCA.

Product Information

The BCM7410 redefines low cost STB integration while the BCM7420 redefines media center integration, and each features the following:

• MoCA 1.1+ modem for home networking
• 1080p/60 “full HD” quality video outputs
• 1,500-DMIPS (millions of instructions per second) CPU
• Dynamic power management controller for high energy efficiency
• High definition video decoders support H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, H.263 and DivX® (dual channel for BCM7420; single channel for BCM7410)
• Mosaic live video decode support
• Multifunction audio decoder (dual channel for BCM7420; single channel for BCM7410)
• PC-class 2D and OpenGL® ES 1.0 3D graphics processing
• High quality video scaling and motion-compensated de-interlacing
• Video digital to analog converters (DACs)
• High-fidelity audio DACs (dual-stereo for BCM7420; stereo for BCM7410)
• Suite of peripherals provides a variety of STB control functions
• Programmable security processor and transport engine
• Integrated 1394a controller.

The BCM7410 and BCM7420 video decoder SoCs meet the market need for whole-home DVR and video distribution applications while also driving down cost and the complexity of deploying whole home networks. The chips can be paired with any Broadcom satellite, cable, IP or DOCSIS® 3.0 front-end.

Availability and Pricing

The BCM7410 video decoder SoC for low cost gateway and client system applications, and the BCM7420 for whole-home media center gateway system applications, are both sampling to early access customers. Pricing is available upon request to manufacturers of set-top boxes.