DOCSIS 3.1 chipset to usher in multi-gigabit era

5th August 2015

Barney Scott

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Datasheet

STMicroelectronics has announced the STiD325 (codenamed Barcelona), its DOCSIS 3.1 chipset for Broadband CPE Cable Modems, embedded Media Terminal Adapters (eMTAs), and Gateways, as well as for Video Gateways when associated to STB chipsets. It is being demonstrated at CableLabs Summer Conference, 2^nd to 5^th August 2015 in Keystone, Colorado.

DOCSIS 3.1 has been engineered by CableLabs to unleash the multi-gigabit data era on existing Hybrid Fibre-Coax (HFC) networks through improved spectral efficiency using OFDM multi-carrier modulation combined with low-density parity-check-based Forward Error Correction.

“Prepared to be among the first commercial DOCSIS 3.1 deployments, our innovative platform architecture supports our ambition to make Barcelona a reference in the Cable industry,” said Philippe Notton, Group Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Product Division, STMicroelectronics. “As a standalone for multi-gigabit cable gateways or combined with our Monaco SoC for an UltraHD media gateway, ST can offer complete solutions for fast design.”

Barcelona is fully compliant with the DOCSIS 3.1 specification, including two 196MHz OFDM downstream channels, 32 single-carrier DOCSIS 3.0 QAM downstream channels, two 96MHz OFDM-A upstream channels and eight single-carrier DOCSIS 3.0 QAM upstream channels.

ST has a long history with DOCSIS technology, having contributed to the standards and participated in all Acceptance Test Plan development committees and Interoperability tests. Demonstrating the value of that effort, the Barcelona early platform operated successfully in the world’s first end-to-end DOCSIS 3.1 field test conducted earlier this year.

Designed for economy and performance, Barcelona features solid technical capabilities, including backward compatibility with DOCSIS 3.0 32x8 to allow a smooth, cost-effective transition to DOCSIS 3.1. Multiple 64-bit ARM CPUs deliver over 10,000DMIPS, line-rate networking support on every port, and hardware acceleration for routing and switching, allowing MSOs to build future-proof CPE platforms with plenty of headroom to support the field introduction of services.

Flexible architecture facilitates independent software development and software upgrades with minimal coupling between stacks, as well as the introduction of features like home surveillance and home automation. 28nm FD-SOI silicon technology, provides outstanding power efficiency at all operating levels, including fanless designs, along with efficient RF and analogue integration.

Currently sampling to lead customers, Barcelona comes with pre-integrated RDK-B software, including DOCSIS and Packet-Cable stacks.