Broadcom chip, Motorola modem pass EuroDOCSIS testing

On the "good news" front, Broadcom announced that its silicon tuner chip has passed the EuroDOCSIS certification process, a significant milestone that will reduce the component count, cost, and reliability of the tuner function in cable modems. The Broadcom BCM3415 silicon tuner and BCM3350 single-chip cable modem passed EuroDOCSIS certification in a D-Link Corporation external cable modem.

Broadcom's highly integrated CMOS tuner chip replaces up to 200 discrete components traditionally housed in a bulky tuner can.

The EuroDOCSIS certification is a significant achievement for Broadcom. European cable operators have a 33 percent wider downstream channel (8 MHz vs. 6 MHz); EuroDOCSIS therefore utilizes higher symbol rates, which demand higher performance from the tuner as well as the downstream demodulator.

The tuner supports up to 256-QAM and also supports an intermediate frequency (IF) output range of 36-44 MHz. It was specifically designed to complement the company's single-chip cable modem that has been certified in PCI, Ethernet and Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable modem products.

The EuroDOCSIS certification lab also re-certified Motorola's SURFboard SB4100E cable modem. It was the first modem to be certified last November, following testing by tComLabs. The new modem utilizes a single-chip design.