BROADBAND CHIPSET MANUFACTURER Centillium Communications has launched a new ADSL chipset that will make the Net fly. The company"s new Palladia 210 chipset for ADSL modems can reach speeds of up to 20Mbps. It will probably take a while to filter down to the average end user but the new chipset points the way that Internet connections are headed. It was only a few years ago that 10Mbps was the speed of a normal LAN. The downside is that telcos will have to install new kit at your local exchange before you can get it.
The new chipset is an all-in-one design with USB, Ethernet and ADSL built onto a chip with a MIPS processor. The processor allows the use of an embedded version of Linux to control the ADSL modem. Depending on the end customer, the chip can be used to make a USB modem or an ADSL Ethernet router.
To give you an idea of the speed, a modem equipped with the 210 would be capable of downloading files at over 2 megabytes per second. That"s a whole CD"s worth of information in five and a half minutes or an entire DVD in forty minutes. It brings the possibility of real-time streaming of high quality video, something that movie studios are keen on and video rental companies are frightened witless about.