Consumers and those who operate the small-office/home-office (SOHO) will now have advanced processing options as Freescale Semiconductor has introduced the first PowerQUICC processor family with QUICC Engine technology designed specifically for this market.

 

The MPC8323E Power QUICC II Pro processors, containing a PowerPC core, are positioned as delivering exceptional packet processing, voice over IP (VoIP) and encryption performance. Consumers and small businesses will be able to take advantage of next-generation, high-speed broadband and wireless services.

 

Residential and SOHO gateways, wireless access points, virtual private network (VPN) and firewall routers, as well as IP services equipment, such as VoIP systems and IPTV (News - Alert) set-top boxes are all meant to receive high performance and flexible connectivity options from the MPC8323E processor family.

 

The MPC8323E’s on-chip PCI interface enables USB 2.0 hubs for printers, network attached storage and media server applications, in addition to wireless connectivity through WLAN 802.11x and WiMAX. Beyond the digital home, the MPC8323E processors can also be used in applications such as DSLAM line cards, industrial control and test and measurement equipment.

 

According to Lynelle McKay, vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Digital Systems Division, the MPC8323E processors provide a powerful, cost-effective solution for residential and small-office networking equipment that requires high-speed packet processing as well as flexible interface options.

 

McKay went on to add that the QUICC Engine technology brings exceptional performance and versatility to the digital home and SOHO market, enabling developers to design innovative systems that are optimal for IP services and triple play.

A streamlined version of QUICC Engine technology is featured in the MPC8323E family. The engine contains a single 32-bit RISC engine optimized for residential and SOHO networking applications which also works in combination with five universal communications controllers (UCCs). Each UCC can be configured to handle a variety of communications protocols.

Once equipped with the QUICC Engine technology, the digital home enables the service provider to add new capabilities, such as security upgrade and improved quality of service through remotely managed upgrades. The Open QUICC Engine developer program allows third parties and customers to develop custom microcode tunes for specific applications.

Joyce Putscher, principal analyst at In-Stat, noted that the future customer premises equipment (CPE) market growth will be driven by next-generation equipment upgrades. DSL gateways will impact this growth the most. Additionally, many service providers are not settled on the type of in-home video distribution mediums they will deploy, so a flexible communications processing platform will be key.

 

The MPC8323E processors are expected to be available in the third quarter of 2006.

 

Advanced capability for the residential and SOHO markets opens up opportunities in multiple industries. This is a lucrative move as not only are consumers demanding more technology in their homes for recreational use, the SOHO market is consistently expanding.

 

Service providers also stand to gain significant positioning with their current customer base when able to support these advancements in technology. Freescale will most certainly expand their market share with its family of processors, especially if they continue to update these processors to keep pace with technological demand.