Marvell Silicon Achieves World's First HomeGrid Forum G.hn Certification

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) today announced that HomeGrid Forum has awarded full compliance certification to Marvell's ITU-T G.hn chipset. Marvell is the first silicon vendor worldwide to achieve compliance with G.hn, an international standard for home networking over any wire (power lines, coaxial cables and twisted pairs) that can operate at data rates up to 1 Gigabit/second. G.hn technology is a key building block of Marvell's Smart Home strategy, and will be embedded into a wide range of G.hn-enabled platforms, including the Marvell^® Avanta^® PON gateways, ARMADA^® Smart TVs and Avastar^® Wi-Fi extenders.

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HomeGrid Forum's Compliance and Interoperability (C&I) program has developed rigorous testing to ensure the highest levels of compliance, interoperability, and performance for G.hn branded silicon and systems; providing system companies, retailers, service providers and consumers with strong assurance of the product's quality and performance. The test suite includes certification for G.hn's state-of-the art neighboring networks technology for robust performance in high-density multi-dwelling unit (MDU) buildings, a technology that Marvell pioneered.

"With HomeGrid Forum certification of Marvell's G.hn chipset, Marvell's customers can develop systems with high performance, flexibility and reliability for streaming multimedia content across multiple platforms in next-generation networked homes," said Winston Chen, vice president of the Smart Home Business Unit at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. "Marvell has always been deeply committed to interoperability among G.hn silicon vendors, and certification is a huge step forward in fostering market growth and enabling more G.hn deployments globally. It also brings Marvell one step closer to its goal of providing the widest possible range of communications choices for the connected lifestyle."

Marvell's ITU-T G.hn compliant chipset provides for unification of the home wireline network for distributing more content to more screens in more rooms throughout the home. Marvell's G.hn chipset is available to customers as part of the GE-DW360F reference design, which includes the Marvell® 88LX3142 G.hn digital baseband processor, the Marvell 88LX2718 G.hn analog front end, the Marvell 88E1510 Gigabit PHY, a built-in pass-through power socket, a complete TCP/IP protocol stack and a flexible software API. The chipset is an ideal solution for distributing bandwidth-intensive and real-time applications like HD IPTV, VoIP, gaming, and multi-room DVR. 

"Marvell is a very hard-working member of the HomeGrid Forum, contributing enormously to our overall success. The company has made great efforts to push its G.hn development ahead and we are pleased to congratulate its team on becoming the first to achieve G.hn silicon Certification," said Matt Theall, President of the HomeGrid Forum. "We also applaud the collaborative approach Marvell has taken with fellow HomeGrid members in their G.hn development and at all of the plugfests. We look forward to announcing certified systems based on the Marvell silicon soon."

"This first HomeGrid Forum G.hn chipset certification is an important milestone in the use of 'no new wires' technologies for the connected-home," said Liam Quirke, analyst at IHS. "Service providers and OEMs can now begin to roll out mass-market solutions based on the standard that allow unprecedented 'no new wires' interoperability, aiding the delivery of cloud-based content to more screens in the home."

Since launching in September 2011, Marvell's award-winning G.hn chipset has already received widespread recognition. The chipset won both the Best Electronic Design Award in 2011 and the Connected Home Award in 2012 for G.hn silicon. Marvell generated great interest for G.hn during successful coax and powerline demonstrations at CES last year, the world's first G.hn full live demo, and the Asia Plugfest in 2012. 

About Marvell

Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a world leader in the development of storage, communications and consumer silicon solutions. Marvell's diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure, including enterprise, metro, home and storage networking. As used in this release, the term "Marvell" refers to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit Marvell.com.

Marvell, ARMADA, Avanta, Avastar and the M logo are registered trademarks of Marvell and/or its affiliates. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

SOURCE Marvell