ennum Corporation announced today that it’s expanding its ActiveConnect family with a new multimedia connectivity solution aimed at consumer cabling applications.

 

The new “ActiveConnect GV8502” product is designed to give cable manufacturers a semiconductor solution to create their thin HDMI consumer cables.

 

The new ActiveConnect GV8502 supports six gigabits per second per channel, almost twice the 3.4Gbps/channel required by the HDMI 1.3 High-speed Category 2 specification, company officials say. The solution can also drive multimedia up to 20 meters over consumer-grade HDMI cables, more than double the reach of existing HDMI solutions, according to the company.

 

Last year, Gennum says it became the first company to support full-rate HDMI 1.3 with a transmit/receive solution capable of operating at distances of 100 meters over coaxial cable, which has since been globally adopted by cable manufacturers serving the custom install market.

 

“The GV8502 enables the development of much thinner cabling solutions, which reduces bill-of-materials cost for cable manufacturers, and increases flexibility and ease-of-use for consumers and custom home theater installers,” said Amit Thakar, a manager at Gennum. “In addition, the new solution doubles the reach of existing HDMI 1.3 Category 2 consumer cables from 10 meters to 20 meters with full-rate HDMI performance, while providing additional performance headroom scalable to 6Gbps/channel.”

 

According to Gennum, consumers now can realize the full benefits of HDMI 1.3, including 1080p deep color, and future-proof their home theater systems for higher bandwidth versions of the specification.

 

The new ActiveConnect solution has been optimized for thinner cable implementation, company officials say, while still supporting the latest HDMI specification at unequaled distances. It gives consumers confidence that disparate multimedia products, such as HDTVs, Blu-Ray players and digital video recorders, will connect and stream multimedia at the highest specifications available today at distances previously unattainable using standard HDMI cable, according to the company.

 

“The market for HDMI products is increasing rapidly, with approximately 144 million HDMI-enabled devices shipped in 2007,” said Brian O’Rourke, an analyst at In-Stat (News - Alert). “We expect that to increase to nearly half a billion devices shipped in 2011. With its ActiveConnect technology, Gennum is positioned to capture a significant portion of those households that wish to have flexibility in where they position their advanced consumer electronic devices in the home.”