K-micro initiates development of IEEE 1901 compliant PLC LSI

Will enable high performance with low power consumption

San Jose, Calif. – October 26, 2010 –K-micro (Kawasaki Microelectronics America, Inc.), a leader in advanced ASICs, announced that it is developing a PLC (power line communication) LSI that is compliant with the recently approved IEEE1901 standard.

K-micro, a member of the HD-PLC Alliance, has licensed the HD-PLC technology used as the basis for the chip from Panasonic Co., Ltd. and Panasonic System Networks Co., Ltd. The K-micro HD-PLC LSI, will feature:

1. PHY rate: 240Mbps (15% higher than the current LSI)
2. Wavelet OFDM methodology for low power (550mW in full operation)
3. IEEE1901 compliance (with ISP support for coexistence)
4. Backward compatibility with existing HD-PLC LSI products

The PLC technology jointly proposed by Panasonic Co., Ltd. and Panasonic System Networks Co., Ltd. was approved by the IEEE Standard Association as a base technology in the IEEE1901 standard. The PLC technology is Wavelet OFDM, which is used in products that adopt Panasonic’s HD-PLC high-speed power line communication technology. This technology features the environmentally friendly capability to realize lower power consumption and lower costs through highly efficient data transmission.

“K-micro is developing products for comprehensive offering of power line communications devices for various applications,” said Koichi Akeyama, president of K-micro. “These new chips will enable low power consumption and high performance for multimedia home networking, smart grid systems and solar panels. The HD-PLC LSI chip will expand our current HD-PLC product line”.

At the present time, K-micro is providing an Analog Front End (AFE) IC "KHN11121" for HD-PLC applications. “When the PLC LSI is combined with the KHN11121, the chip set will provide high performance and low power solutions,” added Akeyama. The high performance is needed to support multimedia home networking, video distribution, IPTV set-top boxes and home gateways. Samples of the chipset will be available in Q2 2011, and volume production will begin Q3 2011.

In addition, K-micro has plans to release an HD-PLC LSI targeted for smart grid applications in 2012. This new chip will operate at significantly lower power and at data rates consistent with smart grid requirements. The lower speed devices are targeted at the smart grid system applications such as energy management, solar panels systems, etc. K-micro is developing solutions to enable power line communications to be used for a wide range of applications.

About Wavelet OFDM

Wavelet OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) is a proprietary technique developed by Panasonic. Wavelet OFDM uses OFDM to achieve efficient high-speed data transmission by applying wavelet conversions orthogonally to each subcarrier. Wavelet OFDM reduces the side-lobe level of each subcarrier with no redundant signals as a result of setting the orthogonality of the wave-frequency domain and time domain.

ABOUT HD-PLC Alliance

The HD-PLC Alliance was established on September 25, 2007, to promote the world-wide adoption of HD-PLC high-speed power line communication technology, and the interoperability of devices that use that technology. HD-PLC Alliance is a non-profit association of more than 20 members including industry leading organizations. The Alliance dedicates its efforts to leading international standardization such as IEEE, and a certification logo program For more information, visit http://www.hd-plc.org/.

About Kawasaki Microelectronics America, Inc. (K-micro)

K-micro's innovative ASIC technologies and analog circuit design technologies are widely used in various markets such as networking, office-automation, consumer electronics and storage. The company is an active participant in industry standards organizations, including IEEE P1901, IEEE P2030, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), High Definition Power Line Communications (HD-PLC), Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA), Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA), etc. K-micro has offices in San Jose, Taipei and Tokyo. Additional information can be found at http://www.k-micro.us