News and New Products

HDSL ICs target commercial and home services

-- EDN, 6/6/1996

The Bt8960, a high-bit-rate digital-subscriber-line (HDSL) IC from Brooktree, targets the local loop to homes. Another HDSL IC, the Bt8921 transceiver targets switched digital services over leased lines, including modems that operate over T1/E1 lines. The Bt8921 includes all of the active circuitry required for an HDSL analog front end. A transmit section generates, filters, and buffers outgoing data in the 2B1Q format, and the receive section uses a 13-bit, 584-kHz A/D converter to digitize the received symbol data. The IC costs $28 (100); samples are available now, and production is scheduled for July.

The Bt8960, meanwhile, supports data rates as fast as 416 kbps over an 18,000-ft local loop to a home. You can use the transceiver to implement as many as six voice/data/fax channels over a single twisted pair. Brooktree believes that the IC will find immediate usage by telephone companies installing services. Brooktree also claims that telephone companies plan to use the IC to bring high-speed data services and Internet access into homes. The Bt8960 costs $20 (50,000). Samples are available now, and the company has scheduled production for year's end.

—by Maury Wright

Brooktree Corp, San Diego, CA. (619) 452-7580.