Arris will use chips from MaxLinear to increase the bandwidth of downstream channels in several of its DOCSIS 3.0 products.
The semiconductor company said its MxL241SF integrates a tuner and demodulator. When coupled with a wideband tuner, it will allow Arris gateways to deliver either 2 x 48 MHz or 2 x 96 MHz capture bandwidth. MaxLinear claims this is at least twice the bandwidth of conventional solutions.
MaxLinear said its chips will be used in 8 x 4 (eight downstream by four upstream) DOCSIS network configurations. The company’s press materials also said Arris would use four of its MaxLinear chips to deliver four of the downstream channels.
There are a total of eight downstream channels on the gateway. Four come through the standard DOCSIS 4 x 4 solution into Texas Instruments’ Puma 5 chip; the addition of the MaxLinear 242 devices working in conjunction with the TI Puma chips will enable an additional four channels.
MaxLinear said its chips hit power consumption targets to qualify for Energy Star certification. Additionally, the device allows for a single-tuner, low-power mode that allows customers to make voice over IP phone calls during power outages under battery power.
“The low power consumption and small size of the MxL241SF make it a terrific solution for cable customer premises equipment, especially those requiring reception of multiple channels like the Arris products,” said Kishore Seendripu, MaxLinear’s CEO.
