CES: Broadcom Debuts Chips for 1-Gig Cable Modems, Ultra HD Set-Tops

Chip company's 4K TV decoder uses HEVC compression

By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/8/2013 8:22:00 AM

Complete Coverage: CES 2013

Las Vegas -- Broadcom is unveiling its first gigabit-speed DOCSIS 3.0 integrated circuit and also is introducing what it claims is the world's first Ultra HD TV video decoder chip, even though Ultra HD televisions today are pricey and years away from mass-market adoption.

Broadcom's fourth-generation DOCSIS 3.0 system-on-a-chip solution, the BCM3384, provides the ability to perform channel bonding across up to 24 downstream channels (for throughput speeds up to 960 Megabits per second in North American cable systems) and eight upstream channels (for up to 240 Mbps).

Broadcom was beaten to market with a 1 Gbps cable modem chip by Intel, which introduced its Puma 6 chip last year.

But Jay Kirchoff, Broadcom vice president of marketing for cable broadband, said just as important as being able to receive nearly 1 Gig into the home is being able to distribute inside the home. Broadcom is pushing its "5G" Wi-Fi chips, which support the IEEE 802.11ac standard, for delivering gigabit Wi-Fi speeds.

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