SiLabs and Beceem partner on WiMax gateway reference design

The WiMAX VoIP gateway reference design is based on Beceem's BCS5350 single chip WiMAX customer premises equipment (CPE) solution. It also incorporates Silicon Labs' Si32176 ProSLIC devices to provide the interface that enables the use of traditional home telephones for VoIP services over WiMAX. The reference design uses Silicon Labs' Si32176 ProSLIC integrated SLIC/codec devices to add one or two telephone ports to a 4G-WiMAX broadband gateway. Beceem's BCS5350 device implements the entire PHY, MAC and RF functionality of a mobile WiMAX terminal on a single chip. The broadband gateway solution enables WiMAX service providers to deliver broadband and fixed- line telephony service wirelessly to subscribers as an alternative to wired broadband services such as ADSL or VDSL over telephone wires, data over cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) over coaxial cable and passive optical networks (PON) using optical fibre. "The market-leading semiconductor solutions from Beceem and Silicon Labs will enable WiMAX gateway vendors to deliver products with the high performance, low cost, low power consumption and small size that their customers demand," said Carlos Garcia, vice president of Silicon Labs' Wireline division. "We expect that our jointly developed VoIP reference design will be well received by the growing 4G-WiMAX market." According to SiLabs, the Si3217x ProSLIC range features 'the world's smallest single chip foreign exchange station (FXS) solutions' and 'the world's first two-chip FXS+FXO solution'. SiLabs adds that these integrated SLIC/codec devices offer the industry's lowest power consumption.