Entropic, Cortina offer advanced broadband router/gateway reference platform

Entropic Communications (NASDAQ: ENTR) has teamed up with Cortina Systems, Inc. to accelerate the development of high-performance customer premises equipment (CPE) including broadband routers and headless gateways for advanced data and TV applications.

The collaboration leverages Entropic's MoCA Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) 2.0 compliant chipset paired with Cortina's CS7542 scalable digital home multi-service processor. The Cortina CS7542 is a dual ARM Cortex-A9 processor architecture with multiple enterprise-class acceleration engines. The CS7542's acceleration engines significantly reduce CPU load for Wi-Fi 802.11ac/n performance, freeing up the Cortex-A9 processor to provide value-add services and a future-proofed option for platform upgrades, the company claims.

The partners assert that service providers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will now have access to a reference design that enables them to quickly develop products with the highest levels of performance and unsurpassed wire or wireless data throughput of 400 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps, depending on requirements. Entropic says its MoCA 2.0 chipset enables operators to offer a reliable whole-home network backbone with backward interoperability to existing MoCA 1.x networks for multi-room DVR, streaming HD VoD content, and extending Wi-Fi coverage throughout the home to support streaming video and data services to tablets and other mobile devices, all on the same coaxial cable.

"Our collaboration with Cortina enables service providers to push the limits on delivering the fastest and most reliable way to stream whole-home, over-the-top, and on-demand content while still delivering on the promise of supporting next-generation connected home entertainment services and applications," said Al Servati, vice president of marketing, connectivity group at Entropic. "Our joint reference design provides a proven platform with the quickest time-to-market for addressing the needs of service providers to deploy next-generation CPE as quickly as possible."

The Entropic/Cortina broadband router and headless gateway reference design will be available to OEM and service provider customers from January 2013. It will be shown at Entropic's private meeting suite at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel during CES 2013, January 8—11, 2013.

For more information on FTTx/access systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.