TI's Wideband BreakthroughTI's Wideband Breakthrough

CableLabs Certification Wave 72 might be better classified as a Certification Ripple based on the dearth of devices that came away with Docsis 3.0 stamps, but the big takeaway is that cable's R&D house has blessed the first modem/gateway equipped with a new Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) chipset that supports downstream speeds of up to 320 Mbit/s.

All previous TI-based, Docsis 3.0-certified devices use chips that support the spec's minimum configuration of four bonded downstream and four bonded upstream channels. Before Wave 72, all 8x4 products approved by CableLabs had been based on Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM) chips.

SMC Networks Inc. confirmed via email today that its newly certified Docsis 3.0 gateway, the SMCD3GN2, is powered by TI and uses the 8x4 channel configuration. TI introduced the 8x4 iteration of the Puma 5 chip back in September 2008, offering a platform that can handle traditional high-speed Internet services, but also set aside up to four channels for the delivery of IP-based video services. (See TI Flexes Docsis 3.0 Muscle .)

A downstream with eight bonded 6MHz channels can produce theoretical bursts of 320 Mbit/s. In EuroDocsis environments, which use 8MHz-wide channels, that number shoots up to 400 Mbit/s.

In other Wave 72 Docsis 3.0 activity, Netgear Inc. (Nasdaq: NTGR) snared certification for a new embedded multimedia terminal adapter (E-MTA, or voice modem), and Technicolor (Euronext Paris: TCH; NYSE: TCH) (formerly Thomson) got the stamp for an IPTV-capable gateway.

Netgear's CVD31XB is a Broadcom-based voice modem with the 8x4 channel setup.

Technicolor's newly certified unit, the DWG875, also uses 8x4 channel and has 802.11n built in. The company confirmed that the DWG875 uses Broadcom's chip.

CableLabs Certification Wave 73 got underway in mid-January, with results expected in by mid-April.

With the Netgear, SMC, and Technicolor models now in the mix as CableLabs-certified, here's an updated list of what's been approved so far for Docsis 3.0:

Table 1: Docsis 3.0-Certified Modems, E-MTAs, and Gateways

Table 2: Docsis 3.0-Qualified Cable Modem Termination Systems (CMTSs)

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News