G.fast is quickly emerging as the potential HD-DVD to DOCSIS 3.1’s Blu-ray, but major companies are starting to roll out chips that can bring G.fast more into the mainstream. Qualcomm is the most recent, as it has announced that Qualcomm Atheros is now offering a high-performance G.fast chipset with end-to-end performance of 1Gbps.
“The combination of Qualcomm Atheros’ broad home networking portfolio and Ikanos’ advanced wired modem technology offers a complete solution for a wide range of home gateway products to better serve the carrier segment,” Irvind Ghai, vice president of product management, Qualcomm Atheros, said in a statement. “The new G.fast chipset offers the industry’s highest performance FTTx broadband access while the reference platform delivers a ‘one-stop-shop’ for smart gateway OEMs.”
In addition to support for the G.fast standard, the new chipset family is also capable of supporting the emerging VDSL 35b profile standard, further extending the rate-reach coverage for carriers.
The low power requirements of the Vx686 G.fast chipset allows for USB-powered bridge design. With support for carrier migration from VDSL to G.fast, along with features that ensure the ability to fall back to VDSL, carriers can hopefully achieve a smooth transition of their subscriber base to gigabit broadband.