Mindspeed releases Comcerto 1000S Processor for service offload platform boxes
Communications semiconductor supplier Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MSPD) has expanded its family of Comcerto 1000 SoC processors to enable the development of service offload platform (SOP) units. SOPs are a new category of customer premises equipment (CPE) designed to enable service providers to deliver value-added connected home applications without requiring the installation of enhanced set-top boxes or multi-function broadband home routers, Mindspeed says.
“SOP Boxes” (a term Mindspeed has trademarked) will be roughly the same size as an external hard drive and will feature an Ethernet connection to the router and a number of USB ports to accommodate various application client devices, according to the company. SOP CPE will prove particularly valuable in the delivery of value-added, gateway-enabled cloud applications with no changes to customers’ existing CPE infrastructure, Mindspeed says.
The single-core M83160 and dual-core M83240 processors are the first in a family of Comcerto 1000S application-specific SoC processors optimized for the cost, speed, bandwidth and compact footprint required for powering such hardware.
“Carriers and service providers need a simple, low-cost delivery platform for connected home applications that can be used with any existing router and access technology, whether DSL, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), or cable,” said Raouf Y. Halim, Mindspeed's CEO. “We are working with equipment manufacturers, carriers, and other value-added service providers to apply the performance and ultra-low power consumption of our proven Comcerto 1000 fiber-to-the-home gateway processors to this new CPE platform, which will meet the unique requirements for provisioning emerging value-added services.”
The Comcerto 1000S processors deliver features that are important for SOP Boxes, Mindspeed says. These include dual-core redundancy to ensure service reliability and both IPSec and secure sockets layer (SSL) hardware encryption. The Comcerto 1000S processors will be supported by Mindspeed’s OpenMind ecosystem, which includes an OSGi and Java application-development framework to speed SOP Box development for a wide range of connected home applications.
Mindspeed already has a customer for the new SoC family. “We are pleased to be the first manufacturer working with Mindspeed to develop products that support this exciting new service-delivery model,” said Chinru Lin, senior assistant vice president of the digital home business unit for ZyXEL. “Cost-effective SOP devices provide an immediate solution for deploying many value-added connected home services over the ideal delivery platform. This will help both ZyXEL and our customers create differentiations to stay ahead of the competition and win more business. Mindspeed’s Comcerto 1000S devices provide an important piece of the solution because of their single- and dual-core configuration, low-power and embedded security capabilities.”
The M83160 and M83240 Comcerto 1000S processors are available in sample quantities and scheduled to begin volume production this quarter.