January 7, 2008

Cisco Releases New Set-Tops, Modems

Cisco has unveiled the latest additions to its 8500HDC Digital Video Recorder (DVR) set-top series. The three new models in the 8500HDC DVR series1 offer 800 mips (million instructions per second) of application processing power; dual 400MHz processors for MPEG-4 advanced video compression decoding; 1 GHz tuning; and optional OpenCable features. Additionally, the 8552HDC DVR model set-top offers Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) whole-home connection. MoCA adds Ethernet-over-coax support, enabling the transport of digital video and entertainment through existing coaxial cable in the home to other consumer home network devices.

Cisco has also announced that it is taking its ultra-high-speed channel-bonding solution – designed to facilitate broadband services in excess of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) – to the next level with a new channel-bonded cable modem. The Cisco Channel-Bonded Cable Modem (Model DPC3000) is designed to give consumers faster access to on-demand, feature-rich entertainment and communications, while enabling service providers to optimize existing bandwidth.

CES is serving as the launch pad for Cisco’s Internet Protocol Services Gateway (Model DRG2800), designed to expand consumers’ entertainment and personal content choices and bring network-based and home-based applications together in one device. According to Cisco, this product provides consumers with a single device that connects to the in-home personal computer via Ethernet and to a digital set-top using coax cable. Cisco’s all-in-one product is capable of managing and delivering a variety of services including high-speed Internet, wired and wireless home networking, file and data storage (including video and music) from its 160-gigabyte hard drive, and voice/telephone service.