DSL Digital Subscriber Line Technologies, Commonly Known As
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DSL Digital subscriber line technologies, commonly known as DSL, represent a family of broadband technologies that use a greater range of frequencies over existing telephone lines than traditional telephone services. This provides greater bandwidth to send and receive information. DSL speeds range from 128 Kbps to 52 Mbps depending upon the particular DSL standard and the distance between the central office and the subscriber. These data rates allow local exchange carriers to provide, and end users to receive, a wide range of new broadband services. DSL technology has a number of standards or line codes used worldwide. We support all standards-based line codes, such as asymmetric DSL, or ADSL, ADSL2, ADSL2+ and very-high-speed DSL, or VDSL, including the standard Annexes used in North America, Europe, Japan and China. In addition, we provide end-to-end technology, with solutions designed for both customer premises equipment, or CPE, and central office applications. Our DSL technologies enable local exchange carriers and enterprise networking vendors to deliver bundled broadband services, such as digital video, high-speed Internet access, VoIP, video teleconferencing and IP data business services, over existing telephone lines. DSL Modem and Residential Gateway Solutions. For DSL CPE applications, we provide products that address the wide variety of local area network, or LAN, connectivity options, including Ethernet, USB-powered solutions, VoIP-enabled access devices and IEEE 802.11 wireless access points with multiple Ethernet ports. These solutions also provide a fully scalable architecture to address emerging value-added services such as in-home voice and video distribution. Wide area network connectivity is provided using integrated, standards-compliant PHY technology. DSL Central Office Solutions. We also provide highly integrated semiconductor solutions for DSL central office applications. Our BladeRunnerTM high-density central office DSL chipset supports all worldwide DSL standards using our proprietary FirepathTM 64-bit digital signal processor. We believe these solutions will enable equipment manufacturers of digital subscriber line access multiplexers, or DSLAMs, and next generation digital loop carriers to offer a significant increase in the number of DSL connections that can be supported within telecommunication companies’ tight heat, power and space constraints. We also provide the inter-networking software that is enabling DSLAM technology to transition from Asynchronous Transfer Mode to Internet Protocol. VDSL Solutions. For VDSL applications, we offer our QAM-based V-thernet˛ product family, which supports Ethernet transport over standard telephone wires and is instrumental in developing standards and products for next-generation VDSL2 applications. Digital Cable, Direct Broadcast Satellite and IP Set-Top Boxes and Digital Television The last decade has seen rapid growth in the quantity and diversity of television programming. Despite ongoing efforts to upgrade the existing cable infrastructure, an inadequate number of channels exist to provide the content demanded by consumers. In an effort to increase the number of channels and provide higher picture quality, cable service providers began offering digital programming in 1996 through the use of new digital cable set-top boxes. These digital cable set-top boxes facilitate high-speed digital communications between a subscriber’s television and the cable network. Digital cable set-top boxes are currently able to support downstream transmission speeds to the subscriber up to 43 Mbps (North American standard) or 56 Mbps (international standard), and several hundred MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 advanced video coding compressed digital television channels. Direct broadcast satellite, or DBS, is the primary alternative to cable for providing digital television programming. DBS broadcasts video and audio data from satellites directly to digital set-top boxes in the home via dish antennas. Due to the ability of DBS to provide television programming where no cable infrastructure is in place, we believe that the global market for DBS set-top boxes will outpace the market for cable set-top boxes. The Federal Communications Commission has stated that traditional terrestrial broadcast stations will be required to broadcast in digital format. Currently, the FCC is targeting 2007 for this mandated digital conversion. This conversion will ultimately require all television sets that are 13 inches or larger, DVD players 4.