Chips Add FEC Capabilities To Consumer Applications

Astro LE chips have been developed for use in modems employed in high-speed wireless Internet access applications, including point-to-multipoint terrestrial and satellite connections. The chips are also suited for use in next-generation powerline modems enabling home or business networks through standard electrical outlets. The Astro LE single-chip turbo product code forward error correction encoder/decoders can handle up to 35 Mbit/s coded data rates and code rates from 0.25 to 0.95. Said to dramatically outperform existing Reed-Solomon/Viterbi devices, the LE chips integrate both a TPC encoder and decoder and can be operated in full- or half-duplex mode. Two versions of the ICs are being introduced with support for block sizes of 2 and 4 Kbits. Both versions have 5V-tolerant inputs with a 3.3V I/O and 1.8V core operation. Rapid code change on-the-fly is included to balance speed and performance in any environment. The Astro LE prototypes will be available Q1 2001 with volume quantities shipping in July. Cost of the 2-Kbit version is $5 each/1,000,000.