Keeping an eye fixed on cable’s next-generation Internet-protocol platform, Intel and MaxLinear have co-developed a new cablemodem chip that will be compatible with DOCSIS 3.1-based networks while also supporting a DOCSIS 3.0 implementation that can bond 32 downstream channels.
The DOCSIS 3.0-facing side will have enough pop to produce downstream bursts of 1.2 Gigabits per second in North American settings that use 6-Megahertz-wide channels and up to 1.6 Gbps on EuroDOCSIS systems equipped with 8-MHz-wide channels.
The chipset, introduced at last week’s IBC show in Amsterdam, matches an updated form of Intel’s Puma 6 DOCSIS silicon with MaxLinear’s MxL268 Full-Spectrum Capture tuner, which can obtain channels for bonding from anywhere along the cable spectrum.
As the Intel/MaxLinear chip combo shows, the first DOCSIS 3.1 modems will be hybrids that can support both DOCSIS 3 .1 and DOCSIS 3.0 spectrum, smoothing the migration path to D3.1, a platform that will be capable of delivering 10 Gbps in the downstream and at least 1 Gbps in the upstream.
Last June, Broadcom announced a DOCSIS 3.0 chip that can bond 32 downstream channels and eight upstream channels, but has yet to outline its DOCSIS 3.1 roadmap.
