Texas Instruments India develops ADSL modem chip

BANGALORE, September 7: Texas Instruments (TI) India has launched an

analog digital subscriber line (DSL) modem chip, which is expected to

bring down the cost of modems substantially. The chip, code named Monet

and designated as TLFD500, has been designed entirely in India at the

Mixed Signal Design Centre of TI, India.

According to TI (India) managing director Srini Rajam, the chip would

help reduce space and cost by integrating high performance converters and

filters to improve the peformance of a G.lite modem. He said that there

were several modem vendors, including one based in India, who were in the

process of designing modems based on Monet chip. "The finished

products are expected to be rolled out during the first quarter of

2000," he added.

The TI team in India defined the specifications and prepared the

architect and designed the integrated chip (IC). The IC characterization

was done at the test facility in India. Mr Rajam said that Monet would

make modems 20 times faster than a conventional 56 kbps modems and could

also be used for video on demand through subscriber telephone lines and

for any other applications on the Internet.

TI (India) manager, mixed signal products, Vivek Pawar said that Monet

was developed in less than a year, one of the fastest for a cutting edge

product. He said that the G.lite technology helped reduce cost on the

finished product, made usage of modem simpler and minimized the need for

wiring change.