Infineon Technologies, one of the worldıs leading providers of Communications Integrated Circuits, introduced the IVAX chipset family. IVAX is the first chipset available to integrate Voice and fullrate ADSL services on a single line card, eliminating the need for splitters on the network side, facilitating the mass provisioning of ADSL in the network. It is targeted at access network and Digital Loop Carrier (DLC) systems markets.

According to the market research company IMS, ADSL has been the technology of choice in the rollout of DSL services by Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) over the past two years and is expected to reach more than 58.0 million lines annually by 2004. Leading ADSL systems and IC companies are focusing their efforts on finding technical solutions to simplify the provisioning of this mature DSL technology. IVAX is the first integrated, 8-channel POTS and ADSL transceiver solution available on the market, which eliminates the need for a separate overlay network. It offers service providers a quick and easy upgrade of access network systems, Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) and Digital Loop Carrier (DLC) equipment.

Anything that rationalizes the service provision for ADSL will be accepted wholeheartedly by the industry. This is a really nice jump, enabling both ADSL and POTS services to be provided on the same line card. For qualified lines it will mean that the provider will not have to replace or add to his switching system -- just enable the ADSL service on the existing one. There will also be cases where the ADSL range can be extended because splitters will be eliminated from the system. Eight channels is also a good number to deal with in each circuit area on a line card these days.

I could not locate a data sheet for the chipset but the manufacturer quotes the power consumption at less than 1 W per channel. No external memory is required and there are four versions of the chipset covering data DSP, G.lite, voice DSP, ADSL and 4-channel ADCs and DACs. The sets are compliant with all the relevant ITU-T, ANSI and ETSI standards. Firmware is available for system testing without additional hardware allowing service pre-qualification without a modem connection.