Broadcom Announces Industry's First 1.6 Gigabit Hybrid Video Cable Gateway SoC

Broadcom's new BCM7145 is a giant step forward in set-top box gateway chip design and is a key enabler for an all-IP cable platform, said John Gleiter, Broadcom Vice President of Set-top Box Marketing, Broadband Communications Group. We have engineered a new solution that builds on Broadcom's unmatched, broad-ranged expertise in set-top box devices and our breadth of broadband, MoCA 2.0, Gigabit routing and leading 5G 802.11ac wireless technologies. As a result, the BCM7145 is a breakthrough that delivers what operators want to compete in their markets.

The Broadcom BCM7145 provides customers with a highly integrated solution that integrates the functionality previously required by five different devices. As a result, Broadcom is able to provide an advanced platform with a lower overall cost, utilizing less power and providing the ability to securely support multiple applications simultaneously.

Broadcom's BCM7145 is engineered with industry-leading features such as a dual-core CPU that supports multiple applications running simultaneously in secure memory containers which prevents compromises to system security while optimizing the use the CPU's very high-performance resources. Broadcom's new SoC also integrates a quad transcoder to enable TV everywhere video services on four wireless mobile devices simultaneously, including smartphones and tablets. In addition, by integrating H.265/HEVC video decoder technology, Broadcom's new cable hybrid gateway device transmits high quality video at one-fourth the bandwidth required by MPEG-2 HD, enabling the delivery of UltraHD content using similar bandwidth as today's MPEG-2 1080p HD.

Broadcom's new hybrid cable gateway SoC also integrates Broadcom's innovative and industry-leading integrated Full Band Capture tuner and spectrum analyzer technology. Full Band Capture is a breakthrough pioneered by Broadcom that enables the 32 demodulators integrated inside the BCM7145 to be used for DVB-C/QAM and DOCSIS simultaneously, with complete channel flexibility up to 1GHz. Full Band Capture also enables breakthrough remote cable system troubleshooting utilizing the build in spectrum analyzer that provides a complete picture of the cable system at the customer's connection to the cable system. This can mitigate customer service calls and reduce operator costs.

The BCM7145 device is also provided with Broadcom's world-class, certifiable Euro/DOCSIS 3.0 modem stack, 5G 802.11ac wireless router, packet cable VoIP stack, and Nexus-Trellis set-top box software that enables system integrators to quickly develop complete solutions for operators worldwide. Broadcom's Nexus-Trellis set-top box software supports many popular middleware solutions, including the new Open Source-based Reference Development Kit (RDK), which is being adopted or strongly considered by numerous cable operators worldwide.

Availability
The Broadcom BCM7145 is currently sampling to customers and is slated for volume production in 2014.