OEMs can design the chip set into Ethernet bridges, residential gateways and networked consumer devices, the company said.

Piranha uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing signal processing over power lines to provide shared broadband access, low-latency audio and video streaming, and high-reliability networking. Cogency claims the silicon enables Ethernet-class networking with quality-of-service support and privacy via encryption.

Cogency said that Piranha comprises the CS1100, a homegrown media-access control and physical-layer chip built around an ARM7TDMI core; and the AD9875, a mixed-signal front end developed by Analog Devices Inc. (Norwood, Mass.).

The CS1100 include a flexible host interface and a 10/100 MII emulator, which emulates an Ethernet PHY and can work with an Ethernet MAC to enable Ethernet-to-power line bridging. It also features an 8-bit parallel mode that makes it easy to integrate the chip set with any CPU, Cogency said.

The CS1100 has a low-power, 1.8-volt core and comes in a 100-pin low-profile quad flat pack. It has an integrated phase-locked loop and uses a low-cost, 25-MHz crystal. The chip's firmware can be upgraded in the field from an external host. It can also share nonvolatile memory with the rest of the system.

The CS1100 will be manufactured in 0.18-micron CMOS by United Microelectronics Corp. of Taiwan using a six-layer metal process.

The AD9875, a low-power converter for power lines, has a 42-dB variable-gain amplifier, a 2x interpolation filter and a 10-bit analog-to-digital, digital-to-analog converter. It is offered in a 48-pin LQFP.

The Piranha chip set will compete with a chip set for power line-based networking from Intellon Corp. that boasts several design wins. Both companies want a portion of what's projected to be a more than $800 million silicon market for home networking over the next few years.

Though Intellon is already several months ahead of Cogency, having introduced its PowerPacket chip set in August, Navin Sabharwal an analyst at Allied Business Intelligence (Oyster Bay, N.Y.), said he thinks that Cogency could pull ahead in the long run.

Sabharwal suggested that Cogency will leverage its system-on-chip capabilities, integrate more functions on-chip and reduce costs faster than Intellon.

Cogency's president and chief executive officer, Ron Glibbery, said that's exactly what the company is planning. "We want to provide lower-cost chips through a high level of silicon integration to enable consumer price points," Glibbery said.

Consumer appeal

Sluggish economic conditions could slow market development, but analysts believe that if Cogency and other companies in the HomePlug Powerline Alliance deliver a cohesive message about how power line networking works, consumers are more likely to spend money on home networking than on products such as MP3 players and personal digital assistants this year.

"Consumers are less likely to throw money at a solution this year unless they are 100 percent sure it will work," Sabharwal said.

Cogency said it has shipped samples to customers, but declined to name them.

Piranha evaluation kits are available. The chip set is priced at $23 in volumes of 50,000.