Silicon provider Broadcom (News - Alert) has announced a hybrid cable gateway set-top box that supports the delivery of UltraHD video, along with whole-home connectivity and multiscreen content sharing.

The platform combines DOCSIS 3.0 and Gigabit wireless gateway functionality with HEVC video decoders and a quad video transcoder onto a single, integrated piece of silicon.

Bandwidth availability is one of the main obstacles to the proliferation of UltraHD and 4K content. Broadcom’s video decoder technology transmits video at one-fourth the bandwidth required by MPEG-2 HD, enabling the delivery of UltraHD content using similar bandwidth as today's MPEG-2 1080p HD.  

The quad transcoder, meanwhile, enables TV Everywhere video services on four wireless mobile devices simultaneously, including smartphones and tablets. 

The integrated platform supports functionality that previously required five different devices. The integrated approach provides a lower overall cost, utilizing less power and providing the ability to securely support multiple applications simultaneously, the company said.

"Broadcom's new BCM7145 is a giant step forward in set-top box gateway chip design and is a key enabler for an all-IP cable platform," said John Gleiter, Broadcom vice president of set-top box marketing for the broadband communications group. "We have engineered a new solution that builds on Broadcom's unmatched, broad-ranged expertise in set-top box devices and our breadth of broadband, MoCA 2.0, Gigabit routing and leading 5G 802.11ac wireless technologies. As a result, the BCM7145 is a breakthrough that delivers what operators want to compete in their markets."

Broadcom's BCM7145 has a dual-core CPU that supports multiple applications running simultaneously in secure memory containers, which prevents compromises to system security while optimizing the use of the CPU's resources. Broadcom's Full Band Capture tuner and spectrum analyzer technology enables the 32 demodulators integrated inside the BCM7145 to be used for DVB-C/QAM and DOCSIS simultaneously, with channel flexibility up to 1GHz.

Full Band Capture also enables remote cable system troubleshooting using the built-in spectrum analyzer that provides a complete picture of the cable system at the customer's connection to the cable system.