Infineon Boosts The Performance of VDSL with VDSL5100: New QAM-VDSL Chip-Set Exceeds 100 Mbps

Mar 4, 2003 | Market News

Munich, Germany and Toronto, Canada - March 4, 2003 - Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX) today unveiled its next generation VDSL5100 chip-set at the FS-VDSL meeting in Toronto, Canada. The new VDSL5100 is a flexible QAM-based VDSL solution for all Very High Bit Rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) applications, including Ethernet over VDSL and ATM over VDSL, with a total aggregate data rate of greater than 100 Megabit per second (Mbps).

Reflecting the experience gained in four previous generations of Infineon VDSL chips, a faster internal data clock rate and a shrink to 0.13 micron production technology, the VDSL5100 provides asymmetric data-rates of 70 Mbps downstream/40 Mbps upstream and symmetric data-rates of 50/50 Mbps over single-pair copper wires, at the same price level as Infineon’s previous 4 band VDSL solutions. This performance boost will enable service providers to provide a broader range of high bandwidth content, such as movies, high-definition television and gaming, to subscribers.

The VDSL5100 is designed to support universal line card designs, with software programmability that allows equipment manufacturers to use a single configuration to support regional Band Plan requirements and various transport protocols in switches and DSLAM line-cards, as well as customer premise equipment (CPE). The VDSL5100 chip-set incorporates several advances in VDSL technology in addition to the highest data rates yet achieved for VDSL. It supports both IP (Internet Protocol) and ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) traffic over the same chip-set, making for cost-effective system designs. The VDSL 5100 provides flexible band allocation and PSD shaping over all VDSL frequencies including Band 0, which utilizes ADSL frequencies for extending VDSL services to distances of over 12,000 feet (4 Km). Furthermore, the VDSL5100 will support filterless designs, which eliminate the need for Band Plan specific external filters, resulting in a smaller circuit board footprint, lower-power consumption, and lower total system costs. Taking advantage of Infineon’s advanced QAM-VDSL solution, system vendors are now able to meet any type of deployment scenario using a single, universal line-card or CPE design - regardless of the band-plan, transport protocol, or network architecture in use.

“The introduction of our fifth generation QAM-VDSL chips with support for greater than 100Mbps aggregate data rates is a leap forward in technology at no additional cost to our customers. The VDSL5100 chip-set price falls in the same range as Infineon's previous 4-Band chips. On the system side, the total cost of the DSLAM/switch line card as well as that of the CPE unit is reduced due to the virtual elimination of filters in the circuit design,” said Christian Wolff, Vice President of Infineon’s Communications Business Group and General Manager of the Access Business Unit. “This latest advancement reinforces Infineon’s commitment to leadership in the VDSL and Ethernet Access markets. We remain focused on providing our customers and the market with high-quality cost efficient solutions, first-class support, and the products they need to succeed,” added Mr. Wolff.

About Infineon’s VDSL5100


The VDSL5100 provides all functions needed for a single-port, 4-Band VDSL circuit design supporting either Ethernet or ATM over VDSL applications. The chip-set uses proven-in-the field Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) and Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) to provide simple, low-cost, low-power, and very robust design and operation.

Fully hardened for extended temperature range operation, the VDSL5100 features industry standard SMII, SS-SMII, and RMII interfaces and MII as per 802.3 Ethernet specification as well as ATM UTOPIA Level 1 and Level 2 interfaces, depending on the transport protocol and if the built-in SAR function is used in ATM mode. Infineon’s VDSL5100 fully complies with T1E1.4, ETSI, and the ITU-T VDSL standard specifications and recommendations providing full support for the two-band, three-band, and four-band frequency allocations of Plan 998 and Plan 997. The chip-set is designed to coexist with voice, ISDN, and other xDSL technologies in the same bundle, as well as POTS or BA-ISDN on the same pair.

Allowing for very high line speeds, the VDSL5100 supports asymmetric transmission rates of 70/40 Mbps and symmetric data rates of 50/50 Mbps at distances up to 1,700 feet (500 meters). At longer ranges, the VDSL5100 delivers symmetric 10 Mbps over 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) and up to 4 Mbps at 12,000 feet (4 Km) using Band 0. Actual performance depends on regional band plans, cable types and deployment environment.

Engineering sample of Infineon’s VDSL5100 will become available starting May 2003. Infineon, which has shipped more than 3 million QAM VDSL ports in the last two years, is pricing the new 4-Band chip-set at approximately $15 in production volumes, which is the same cost as Infineon’s current 4-Band and Packet over VDSL chip-set solutions. Comparatively, Infineon’s 2-band 10BaseS chip-set solution is priced at approximately $10 in production volumes.

About Infineon


Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for the automotive and industrial sectors, for applications in the wired communications markets, secure mobile solutions as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In fiscal year 2002 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 5.21 billion with about 30,400 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com

Information Number

INFCOM200303.050e