QCA Introduces Home Plug Green Phy IC
Dec 6, 2011 – San Jose, CA – Qualcomm Atheros (QCA) introduced the first single chip solution for the Home Plug Green Phy specification. The Green Phy is a high reliability low power specification for the power line communication standard. When compared to the HomePlug AV the Green Phy system offeres75-80% power reduction, lower cost reduced data rates (minimum 1 Mbps effective data rate and 3.8 Mbps peak PHY rate) in a system that supports IPV6 and in application firmware updates. The Green Phy standard for is interoperable with the IEEE 1901 and the HomePlug AV powerline networking protocols.
The QCA 7000 silicon is a single chip solution that features the power management unit, analog front-end, memory and SPI and UART host interfaces. These allow for direct connection with low power microcontrollers and straight forward integration with existing designs in the smart enrgy market. The part is also available with a GPIO bus and an option Flash interface for monitoring sensor and smart plug applications. The part was partially developed under a DOE development grant to bring realization to the Green Phy spec.
An area of interest for the part is the automotive market place. They have been looking as using the Green Phy communication interface as a method of monitoring and reporting if a car is connected to a charging station and the status of that charging process. As these charging systems are typically a separate dedicated power line, there have been some communication challenges in the past that are addressed by the power line communication.
The part is supported by a full SDK and HDK which includes firmware, development and reference designs as well an interface to a host processor system. The QCA7000 is the lead entry in the product family that will be addressing further applications and price points in the smart energy management market for both residential and commercial systems.
The part is sampling to select customers now and will be available in late Q1’12 for all commercial customers. There are several early release designs that will be shown at the 2012 CES show incorporating the part. For more information on the HomePlug Green Phy specification can be found at HomePlug GP.
