Broadcom will be one of the beneficiaries of Motorola‘s
recently announced “connected home” initiative.
The Irvine, Calif., firm said it has extended its contract to be the main supplier of computer chips for Motorola’s new DCT6000 line of cable set-top boxes. Financial terms of the new deal, which runs through 2004, were not disclosed.
Broadcom’s chips power set-top boxes that merge high-speed cable modem functionality with graphics, text and video for both standard and high-definition formats.
In addition, Broadcom’s set-top box products enable personal video recorder functionality, allowing viewers to watch and record multiple programs and selectively view, fast forward, fast reverse and slow motion and frame-by-frame video.
“Together, we can expand the set-top marketplace . . . and, in turn, drive enhanced video experiences for users as well as additional revenue streams for cable operators,” said Dan Marotta, a Broadcom vice president.
Last week, Motorola formed a new business unit to sell “connected home” networking gear — most notably wireless cable modem gateways and digital set-top boxes — to consumers.
Other offerings include home networking components, phones and mutli-fuction devices such as its all-in-one, cable-ready home theatre system.
Besides unifying systems and devices in the home, Motorola said the equipment opens the door for network operators to deliver new services such as digital music subscriptions, Internet home monitoring and voice over Internet protocol phone service.
Last month, it signed a deal to provide set-top boxes/personal video recorders and technical support to Comcast digital cable subscribers. So far, the Chicago-area company has shipped more than 26 million digital set-tops serving more than 75 million homes.
Motorola’s set-top portfolio has enabled 350 broadband operators worldwide to deliver a range of interactive information and entertainment services to customers’ homes in over 1,000 cable systems.