Still waiting for Qualcomm's new HomePlug AV chipset, AR7420, yet another one chip solution

We are still waiting for Qualcomm's new HomePlug AV AR7420 chip announced September 2011.

The AR7420 is yet another one chip solution for HomePlug AV adapters designed to compete with Broadcom's  BCM60321 which is already winning business away from the Homeplug market leader Qualcomm. Like the BCM60321, the AR7420 integrates on one chip RAM, Flash, AFE, two Ethernet interfaces.

HomePlug Interop Plugfest - Sigma/Coppergate is MIA

HomePlug announced an Interop Plugfest for the vendors of HomePlug AV-IEEE 1901 chips.

• Atheros Communications is  there.
• Gigle Networks is there.
• SPiDCOM Technologies, the latest compliant  HomePlug AV chip vendor,  is  there.

But missing is HAN Fan's favourite MIMO enhancing HomePlug AV chip vendor, Sigma/Coppergate. Surely they would not be late with product for the "10 new customers for their HomePlug AV chip" Sigma's CEO announced during their Q2 earnings conference call.  They must have a great strategy to sell chips that are not shown to the public.

WiGig Thumps, Wifi Dumps, SiBEAM Jumps, and Amimon Slumps

WiGig guys have announced a specification for a HAN with speeds up to 7Gb/sec over distances of less than 10  meters using the 60GHz.

The thumping big news is WiGig's joint announcement with the WiFi guys that the WiGig spec will become part of the WiFi family.

The immediate implications are:

• WiFi Dumps the 802.11 process. WiGig is the first full specification that WiFi will certify that does not have a SDO backing.--before today WiFi only took stuff from 802.11. WiFi seems not want to wait until 2015 for the IEEE to finish their 600GHz project.
  
• SiBEAM Jumps to WiGig and tries to save face by announcing a never-to-be-seen-and-soon-to-be-forgotten dual mode (WirelssHD/WiGig) chip--seems to be a smart move if they have the cash to switch.
  
• Amimon Stumped but  continues to do what it is doing (500K chips so far--so what) and are going it alone--right, this should last as long as they have VC money to spend.

This is a lot excitement for a technology that will replace a $10 cable with with $150 box+2 $10 cables.

Atheros trash talk: "HomePlug Better Now Than G.hn Will Be"

Atheros told The Online Reporter that "it does not have G.hn-based network chips on its product roadmap and is instead focused on products that are based on HomePlug AV and IEEE1901 standards".

The rest of the article is a pretty good rant why HomePlug AV is better than G.hn. One new bit of information: HomePlug AV already is working on coax and phonelines--just lisk G.hn may do in 2011.

From the article:

Why Atheros Stuck with HomePlug Over G.hn

- G.hn’s incompatibility with HomePlug’s large installed base.

- Better throughput over range performance than G.hn over electrical wires and coax.

- Proven in the market with several million adapters installed.

- HomePlug becomes a global standard with the approval of IEEE 1901.

- IEEE is the preeminent standards body for multi-vendor, open networking with highly successful standards such as Ethernet (802.3) and Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) 9802.11)

More on The wireless HD format wars

Over at the Siteroller Blog there is a great summary of where we are in the the wireless HD format wars.

"Despite promises that this would soon be standard and inexpensive (up to $100 for the feature), it's been a tough trip. Until recently it wasn't available at all in North America, and now it is mostly found using stand alone devices such as GefenTV's streaming devices."

Siteroller then goes on to summarize the different technologies and vendors and who is winning and loosing. But in the end his says.

 So, it's still too early to say anyone's really winning.
But the sooner these become reality, the better!     

Fastest? IEEE 1901 or G.hn, fight!

PHY data rates for any HAN technology, except good old Ethernet, are lies, but they are useful to compare within technologies.

G.hn has been claiming they are 1Gbps, but DS2 told a local on-line magazine that their next G.hn chip is only 400Mbps.

IEEE 1901 is more or less HomePlug AV which is rated at 200Mbps, but there are optional features to go faster; how fast? Atheros announced  their IEEE 1901 AR7400 chip to be 500Mbps.

Real world performance will not be the same, but for on-the-box speed IEEE 1901 wins.

Monster Cable is the New Plumbing Company of the Wired Home Network

Alan Weinkrantz, over at his G.hn fan site, is 100% correct when he writes that Monster Cable being the "the new plumbing company of the wired home network". It now means that normal people will be buy poweline devices when they buy a TV.


Note that this is not a G.hn chip (Alan forgot to be explicate about this)--Monster only uses HomePlug AV chips and in this case it is a HomePlugAV/IEEE 1901 chip from Atheros (AR7400).

Another funny think is Monster and Atheros cannot decide how fast the AR7400 is. Monster says 1Gbps and Atheros says 500Mbps (remember these are PHY rates, TCP/UDP rates are about one third of this).

EDN says: DS2 is dead, G.hn/HD-PLC have no hope, and asks which PLC vendor will Broadcom buy

EDN Senior Technical Editor Brian Dipert posted his reporting on Powerline Networking at CES 2010.

Fantastic detailed insider information where he:

• fauns over Atheros' HomePlug-AV turbo chip AR7400 which is IEEE 1901 compatible
• reveals that Gigle's firmware was released early due to Belkin wanting to make the Christmas rush
• claims that "DS2...appears to be on life support (or worse)" and even provides confirmation on senior VP who have left DS2
• trashes the ITU's make work project G.hn,: "unless G.hn faces up to de facto standardization reality and incorporates HomePlug AV into its specifications instead."
• speculates which HomePlug-AV silicon company Broadcom will buy

Update: As several people have pointed out, speculation on the death of DS2 has been around for many years, so don't expect it any time soon.

Update2: The comments section makes very interesting reading. The suggestion that the PLC industry grab the 54-88 MHz  band from handful of TV stations now operating now in the US sounds good, but it is pretty clear, the PLC industry is not big enough to afford it.