Munich, Germany–Infineon Technologies AG, one of the world’s leading providers of commmunications ICs and a pioneer in the field of VDSL, today announced that the company, together with 3COM, has been awarded a patent for Ethernet Transport Facility over DSL technology. The technology, trademarked by Infineon as 10BaseS, uses VDSL modem technology to provide high-performance copper access technology for the explosive MDU/MTU market.
Originally, VDSL technology was designed to provide telephone companies with a competitive solution in their ongoing challenge with the cable companies to deliver true broadband services over existing copper infrastructure. Merrill Lynch cited in its October 2000 report forecasts that the market for semiconductors used in DSL equipment will grow 79% through 2004, while the market for semiconductors used in cable modems will grow only 29% through 2004.
“10BaseS is best suited for the Multiple Tenant Units (MTU) and Multiple Dwelling Units (MDU) markets because of its interface simplicity and high data rate. The patent will strengthen Infineon’s dominance in this lucrative market,?”says Noam Alroy, Infineon’s vice president and general manager Access 2. “Adding 10BaseS to our broadband access portfolio and our highly integrated LAN switching ICs has enabled us to offer our customers all the communications building blocks they need for a cost effective, high performance MTU/MDU solution.”
The inventors of record are Dr. Peleg Shimon and Dr. Porat Boaz, Chief Scientists Access 2 at Infineon Technologies and Noam Alroy. Additional inventors include Rubinstain Avinoam and Sfadya Yackow, who held leading positions in 3COM’s Network System Business Unit when the patent application was filed in 1997.
10BaseS is a highly integrated, low-power, Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) solution. It uses frequency division multiplexing (FDM) to separate downstream channels from upstream channels as well as to separate both downstream and upstream channels from POTS signals. Unlike standard Ethernet, it does not require costly Cat 5 cabling. It makes use of the existing copper infrastructure, while maintaining full integrity for distances of more than 4,000 ft.
10BaseS provides glue-less compatibility with RMII, SMII, seven wire and IEEE 802.3 Ethernet MII interfaces reducing design complexity, cost and time to market. Configured as a standard Ethernet PHY it can be used in switch, DSLAM or Network Interface Card (NIC) applications. The chipset can also be configured as a Media Access Controller (MAC) for standalone control of Ethernet PHY devices in customer premise equipment applications.
The 10BaseS chipset is priced at $23 for quantities of 500,000. Volume shipments are available now.