Infineon supports ADSL-2 standard with Geminax chipset

Infineon supports ADSL-2 standard with Geminax chipset
MUNICH, Germany --- German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AGis supporting a new standard from the International Telecommunications Union, designated G.992.3/G.992.4 and which is an upgrade to the Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) standard. ADSL2 allows a given data rate to be enjoyed at a greater distance from the central office switch, according to Infineon, but the company did not quantify how much further ADSL-2 can reach beyond conventional ADSL.

Infineon has been studying the standard as preparation for an upgrade to its Geminax chipset. That upgrade has been completed and ADSL2-compliant Geminax chipsets are now sampling, the company said.

In addition to extending the reach of ADSL the upgrade includes changes to line diagnostic capabilities and power saving modes, according to Infineon. Other features covered by the standard and now supported by the Infineon chipset are fast start up, All Digital Loop (ADL) and channelized voice.

To support the new standard, Infineon has added an ADSL2-compliant 'data-pump' chip to the Geminax chipset. No details of what the standard upgrade entails or how the data-pump implements the upgrade were given.