Date: 07/11/2011

New EPON OLT chip from Broadcom saves 7 ASSPs and on-board memory chips

Broadcom Corporation has announced the BCM55524 Quad Port Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) Optical Line Terminal (OLT) combines the functionality of up to seven application-specific standard parts (ASSPs) and eliminates seven on-board memory devices. Broadcom says the BCM55524 delivers twice the density and half the power per port of its predecessor, the TK3723, the world's most widely adopted EPON OLT SoC. EPON chips market is growing due to increase in number of worldwide FTTx subscribers.

Key Features of this chip as listed by Broadcom:
Fully backward software compatible with TK3723 and supports Broadcom's DOCSIS Mediation Layer
Integration of up to seven ASSPs and reduction of up to seven memory devices with transition to DDR-3
Four IEEE 802.3ah-compliant EPON MACs with Broadcom Turbo-EPON support
Integration of four 1.25 Gbps/2.5 Gbps Burst-mode SerDes and four NNI-side SGMII SerDes
IPTV-ready supporting IP Multicast protocols with IPv4 and IPv6 support
Full line-rate Layer 2/3/4 filtering and packet processing with comprehensive rule-based classification
Integrated Traffic Management with 4,096 queues for SLA QoS policy enforcement
Compatible with IEEE 802.3ah EPON, China CTC 2.1, and CableLabs DPOE specifications

Availability: The BCM55524 is now sampling with production volume slated for the first half of 2012.