TMCnews Featured Article

May 15, 2009

NEC, SPiDCOM, Gigle Semiconductor and Intellon Join the HomePlug Powerline Alliance

By Patrick Barnard, Group Managing Editor, TMCnet

NEC (News - Alert) Electronics Corporation, SPiDCOM Technologies, Gigle Semiconductor and Intellon Corporation have joined the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, an industry trade group devoted to the advancement of broadband over powerline (BPL) technologies, as Sponsor Members. As such, each organization will take a seat on the Alliance’s board of directors.

Through its Smart Energy Initiative, HomePlug is working on promoting communications and networking technologies that help consumers monitor and reduce their energy consumption. The Alliance is currently collaborating with utility companies and the ZigBee Alliance to help build the Home Area Network (HAN) ecosystem that enables intelligent energy management and efficiency in the home and small businesses.

"Gigle, Intellon, SPiDCOM and NEC truly understand the importance of HomePlug's standards-based approach to unifying the powerline communication industry," said Rob Ranck, president of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, in a release. "Having these companies on our Board strengthens our drive to take the industry to the next level of adoption and broad consumer acceptance."

"Powerline technology is essential to the successful rollout of HD IPTV (News - Alert) solutions to our customers," said Fabrice Amand, livebox inlife marketing manager for France Telecom-Orange, a member and key contributor to the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, ITU G.hn and IEEE (News - Alert) P1901. "We welcome the new Board members and the recent announcements of multiple silicon sources for HomePlug, a key element for operators."

"Reliable and cost-effective communication technologies are key for designers looking to develop smart-energy products, and standardization will be key to achieving mainstream adoption," said Kazu Yamada, vice president, custom SOC solutions strategic business unit, NEC Electronics America, Inc. "By joining the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, NEC Electronics reaffirms its commitment to provide standardized and cost-effective connectivity solutions for applications in energy management such as smart metering, home area networks and building automation."

BPL is technology which allows electrical powerlines to be used as an IP network. Thus it allows for the delivery of IP-based services including high-speed Internet, VoIP, television and video security over existing electrical wiring.

Delivering speeds of more than 200 Mbps, BPL is an attractive alternative to costly cabling in order to bring broadband services to residences, housing developments and small businesses in remote or rural areas. The technology’s slight limitations in terms of speed and capacity are arguably made up for by its tremendous convenience: With BPL, all a user needs is a BPL “modem” which can be plugged into any wall outlet in order to get Internet access and other broadband services. There’s no need to wire (or re-wire) the entire facility with cable or DSL lines in order to deliver the services, as they are delivered over the last mile via electric powerlines which are already in the building. The technology is continuing to see growing adoption in both Europe and the U.S. (although in the U.S. it has seen much slower adoption).

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance includes more than 70 members and offers the industry’s only comprehensive certification program.

HomePlug AV is now widely deployed worldwide and is the baseline technology for the IEEE P1901 powerline specification. In March the IEEE approved a preliminary version of the draft standard -- "Standard for Broadband over Power Line Networks: Medium Access Control and Physical Layer Specifications."

“Joining the board, SPiDCOM takes a leadership role in the alliance and strengthens its long-time technology contributions to HomePlug standards,” said Frederic Onado, chief operating officer of SPiDCOM Technologies and also vice president EMEA of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, in a separate release. “We are glad our newly released SPC300 HomePlug AV SoC belongs to the only multi silicon vendor powerline ecosystem in existence.”

SPiDCOM’s new SPC300 HomePlug AV SoC is based on a “no-limits” design approach (no processor limit, no application limit, no interface limit thanks to a gigabit Ethernet port). The company claims it changes the way product designers implement HomePlug technology by allowing innovative solutions with less complexity and lower cost.

"The SPC300 HomePlug AV SoC product introduction is a landmark in the Powerline Communication industry because HomePlug AV technology really becomes multi-vendors today," said Radomir Jovanovic, president and CEO of SPiDCOM Technologies, in a release. "The SPC300, thanks to its 'no-limits' design approach, will change the way product designers implement HomePlug technology by allowing innovative solutions with less complexity and lower cost."

The first 32-bit processor in the system is dedicated to the physical layer management and to all the real-time requirements. It enables the SPC300 to adapt to changes in the electrical power lines and to react accordingly in order to keep the highest levels of performance possible. The second processor is dedicated to customer applications.

SPiDCOM provides Linux software and development tools so partners can customize “no-limits” added-value applications. This way, SPC300 allows a complete product differentiation that is not merely depending on cost.

Patrick Barnard is a contributing writer for TMCnet. To read more of Patrick’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard

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NEC, SPiDCOM, Gigle Semiconductor and Intellon Join the HomePlug Powerline Alliance

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