Another chipmaker has joined the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA), and it's a doozy: Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC).

The silicon giant has joined MoCA as a contributor member, giving it the licenses necessary to develop chips that support a coax-based scheme that shuttles data, including hi-definition video, over a home network at a theoretical 270 Mbit/s. The multi-room digital video recorder is one of its primary applications, with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) among the technology's early adopters.

MoCA, which counts Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and EchoStar Satellite LLC as founding members, competes in the market with other wire-based platforms such as HomePlug A/V and HomePNA 3.1, which was approved as a standard by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in February.

"Intel has been instrumental in driving the development and establishment of standards in home connectivity," said MoCA president Charles Cerino, in a release. Cerino is also serves as Comcast's vice president of new media development.

Joining MoCA marks Intel's latest cable-related technology strategy. In June, Intel signed on to support OpenCable, a platform that aims to give the cable industry a uniform set-top technology footprint and a path toward a retail market for digital set-top boxes. At the time, Intel said the agreement will allow it to develop OpenCable-based chips for digital TVs, set-tops, digital media recorders, and other "networked" devices. (See Intel Goes Inside Cable... Again and Cable Intel-ligence.)

The OpenCable Platform is also angling to become the basis of a two-way, plug-and-play agreement for a new breed of digital TVs, though some comsumer electronics interests are proposing a different system called DCR+. (See Two-Way Battle Reaches FCC.)

Intel is the latest chipmaker to join MoCA. In addition to founding member Entropic Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTR), other semiconductor players to sign on the dotted line include:

MoCA, which has 52 members overall, is closing in on 2 million chipsets shipped, according to an organization spokesman.

— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News