The Texas Instruments AR7 ADSL router integrates all digital and analog functions, power management, and hundreds of discrete components onto one chip, reducing the bill of materials by 25% for the typical home router. It can greatly simplify router and modem design, reduce costs, and shorten time-to-market.
Several new technologies significantly improve the chip's performance. The TurboDSL packet accelerator provides 300% faster packet acknowledgement than current chip-set solutions to enhance downstream data rates. Dynamic adaptive equalization automatically adjusts the signal to match the given line length and characteristics. The AR7 also supports the ADSL2+ standard.
Interfaces on the AR7 let it connect to a four-port Ethernet switch, TI's TNETW1130 802.11a/b/g wireless local-area-network baseband chip, or even voice-over-IP circuits. The AR7 runs on either Linux or the VxWorks operating system. TI offers a range of hardware, software, reference designs, and support to OEM designers. Full production of the AR7 is expected in the third quarter.
Texas Instruments Inc.www.ti.com/dsl or www.ti.com/ar7