TI creates new PLC modems

USA: Easing the burden of supporting multiple regions with one device, Texas Instruments (TI) announced a new power line communication (PLC) modem platform that supports the G3, PRIME and IEEE-1901.2 standards across both CENELEC and ARIB frequency bands.

The new optimized TMDSPLCKITV4 kits provide developers with a smaller low-cost design to evaluate any narrowband orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) PLC technology standard for use in a variety of industrial systems such as smart grid advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), solar energy installations, and building and factory automation systems.

TI's complete PLC solution includes all of the hardware, firmware and development tools needed to get started quickly. Developers can now use the TMDSPLCKITV4 platform to create a single PLC project with support for different regions.

In addition to supporting G3, PRIME and IEEE 1901.2 PLC standards, the new modem kit will also work with TI's proprietary PLC-Lite software. PLC-Lite is a lower data rate PLC implementation (up to 21kbps) using OFDM modulation that supports point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communications, making it highly attractive in solar energy applications.