The two largest chipmakers based in Orange County are working together to develop a new connectivity standard for next-generation digital subscriber lines, commonly referred to as DSL.
Broadcom Corp. in Irvine is supplying systems-on-a-chip for high-speed DSL support, while Aliso Viejo-based Microsemi Corp.’s complementary chips provide power at the set-top box and receive power at the distribution point.
The combination aims to provide global DSL providers—such as Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom—with high-speed gigabit-over-copper connectivity. It’s an emerging technology that’s still a few years from deployment as carriers wrestle with growing demand for bandwidth.
“This makes it a much lower cost to deploy DSL for operators,” said Russ Garcia, Microsemi’s executive vice president of worldwide marketing.
Broadcom is OC’s largest chipmaker, with 2,500 local workers and annual revenue of about $8.3 billion. Microsemi employs more than 260 people here and has annual sales of about $976 million.
Microsemi will rely on its mixed-signal engineers in Aliso Viejo and offices in Israel to work on the project. Broadcom also has operations in Israel, including several acquired in deals in the past few years.
Broadcom and Microsemi are known for different specialties, but the two companies have found common ground in the past.
Microsemi has provided voice line circuits in Broadcom’s residential gateway and customer premises equipment (CPE) offerings, as well as built drivers to support power line communication chips. Microsemi also has provided front-end radio frequency (RF) integrated circuits for Broadcom’s Wi-Fi combo baseband chips.
“A lot of the products that Broadcom does are very complementary to what we do,” Garcia said.
Broadcom specializes in connectivity chips that go in tablets, smartphones, set-top boxes, broadband modems, networking gear and other products.
Microsemi has carved out a niche developing timing and synchronization chip sets as it is diversifying from its legacy of discrete power chips used by the defense and industrial sectors and rapidly growing in the communications infrastructure market.
“Our leadership in that area makes us very attractive to work with,” Garcia said.
Broadcom did not respond for comment.
G.fast
The developing connectivity standard, known as G.fast, deploys fiber deep into a neighborhood and relies on existing copper as an extension cord of sorts, the last 600 feet or so to the house, apartment, or office building subscriber.
Some telecommunication equipment makers, such as Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei, are working on G.fast components and modems. Adoption among phone carriers has been slower, with Swisscom, Telekom Austria, and German Telekom in Europe testing the technology.
The partnership among the local chipmakers, and Microsemi’s new reverse power feed technology geared for G.fast and similar
connectivity, was announced late last month at the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam.
