Intel To Acquire Texas Instruments' Cable Modem Unit

[btarunr]

Intel Corporation today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Texas Instruments' cable modem product line. The purchase enhances Intel's focus on the cable industry and related consumer electronics (CE) market segments, where the company's expertise in building advanced system-on-chip (SoC) products, based on Intel Atom processors, will be applied.

Intel plans to combine Texas Instruments' best-of-breed Puma product lines with the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) standard technology and Intel SoCs to deliver advanced set top box, residential gateway and modem products for the cable industry. The objective is to provide cable OEMs with an open and powerful platform for delivering innovative and differentiated products to service providers that improve the video, voice and data content experience at home.

"Adding the talents of the Texas Instruments' cable team to Intel's efforts to bring its advanced technology to consumer electronics makes for a compelling combination," said Bob Ferreira, general manager, Cable Segment, Intel's Digital Home Group. "Intel is focused on delivering SoCs that provide the foundation for consumer electronics devices such as set top boxes, digital TVs, Blu-ray* disc players, companion boxes and related devices. This acquisition specifically strengthens Intel's product offerings for the continuum of cable gateway products and reinforces Intel's continued commitment to the cable industry."

All employees of Texas Instruments' cable modem team received offers to join Intel at sites in their home countries, primarily Israel, and will become part of Intel's Digital Home Group. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The agreement is subject to regulatory review and customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[WarEagleAU]

Can you imagine how much faster and possibly cheaper the cable modems would be? With an intel atom processor around 1.6ghz. Data packets should be processed a lot quicker.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

This is awesome. Fully programmable x86 modems (and routers) could open a lot of possibilities, especially in terms of power consumption.

 

[mlee49]

Under the Latest Post section this thread shows up as "Intel to Acquire Texas". Lol

How much performance gain is there from this technology? I thought simple routers could use chips from Marvel.

 

[ebolamonkey3]

Under the Latest Post section this thread shows up as "Intel to Acquire Texas". Lol

How much performance gain is there from this technology? I thought simple routers could use chips from Marvel.

That's what I saw too haha. First reaction was , then , then , then

 

[TheGuruStud]

Cisco's gonna be pissed haha. They've been trying for years to get into consumer markets.

Sounds like intel wants everything to have their shit in it. I guess broadcom and others are really gonna flip.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Under the Latest Post section this thread shows up as "Intel to Acquire Texas". Lol

How much performance gain is there from this technology? I thought simple routers could use chips from Marvel.

They usually use Broadcom, Motorola, or other ARM processors.

Cisco's gonna be pissed haha. They've been trying for years to get into consumer markets.

Sounds like intel wants everything to have their shit in it. I guess broadcom and others are really gonna flip.

Linksys? Cisco has a consumer product and they're talking about shutting it down (selling former Linksys products as Cisco branded products).

 

[mlee49]

Linksys got dropped by Cisco, Valet is ther new "consumer grade" product line.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Can you imagine how much faster and possibly cheaper the cable modems would be? With an intel atom processor around 1.6ghz. Data packets should be processed a lot quicker.

that would be cool except that the processor would need its own cooling system & that adds unnecessary bulk to the router when most of them are fairly small n can be shoved in a small corner or hidden under piles of paper work.

another good think is it could power the hardware firewall. most routers already come with built in firewalls but what if it was a more active firewall??

 

[TheGuruStud]

They usually use Broadcom, Motorola, or other ARM processors.



Linksys? Cisco has a consumer product and they're talking about shutting it down (selling former Linksys products as Cisco branded products).

That's exactly what I'm talking about. They tried and effectively failed. Idk why they can't do anything right.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Linksys got dropped by Cisco, Valet is ther new "consumer grade" product line.

Eh? Cisco still owns Linksys. In fact, current Valet products are rebranded Linksys products. Kind of odd that they created the Cisco Valet brand though. They use Broadcom processors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_Valet_Routers

Valet could be what Linksys is to eventually become (phase out Linksys and phase in Valet).

 

[FreedomEclipse]

That's exactly what I'm talking about. They tried and effectively failed. Idk why they can't do anything right.

but aint Cisco one of the biggest names in industry next to SUN systems & IBM?? you'd think with such a big market share they wouldnt really need to make routers for commercial use

 

[TheGuruStud]

but aint Cisco one of the biggest names in industry next to SUN systems & IBM?? you'd think with such a big market share they wouldnt really need to make routers for commercial use

Yeah, they make enough off of it, but you know these guys (greedy haha), they want to ruin everything.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

if they want to make more profit - they should what intel did & start offering under the table cut price deals & offers on their units like what Intel did/attempted to do to try push AMD out of the market.

 

[Static~Charge]

Cisco's gonna be pissed haha. They've been trying for years to get into consumer markets.

Cisco Systems has been in the consumer market for quite a while now. They bought Scientific Atlanta in November 2005:

With the purchase of Scientific Atlanta, Cisco now owns 40% of the market for set-top boxes that bring cable TV into homes via IP streams.

Scientific Atlanta also makes digital video recorders, cable modems, cable set-top boxes, and IP TV networking gear for service providers.

http://www.networkworld.com/weblogs/wan/010412.html