Microtune's new tuner chip is engineered to deliver the impressive data speeds (greater than 160 Mbps) and wider bandwidth (100 MHz) demanded by cable equipment manufacturers for an easy, reliable, and cost-effective way to implement DOCSIS 3.0.

The MT2170 tuner offers the equivalent functionality of four DOCSIS 2.0 digital tuners in a highly integrated miniature package, shrinking the tuner footprint and reducing the power consumption by approximately 75% compared to pre-DOCSIS 3.0 multi-tuner solutions.

When integrated into cable modems or video-over-IP set-top boxes, the MT2170 delivers speeds greater than 160 Mbps. This enhanced throughput will permit cable operators to cost-effectively offer bandwidth-intensive digital services today, to position their products for integrated service innovations in the future, and to aggressively compete with high-powered fiber-to-the-home networks. Cable premise equipment can be designed to support fast high-definition video downloads, video file exchanges, time-shifted and place-shifted video, Internet-Protocol (IP) voice and interactive on-line gaming.

"DOCSIS 3.0 represents a major technology shift in the cable industry, permitting cable operators to enable faster, scalable broadband Internet services, including movie downloads and other IP video," said James A. Fontaine, President and CEO of Microtune. "Our new wideband tuner is key to enabling true DOCSIS 3.0, and we have been actively involved in the definition of the DOCSIS 3.0 specification which ensures our compliance with this important standard. As a major supplier to the industry's premier equipment manufacturers, we are providing our customers cost-effective and highly advanced technology to help them accelerate adoption of DOCSIS 3.0 capabilities in their next-generation cable products."

The MT2170 tuner will be sampling in second quarter 2007 to select customers and is priced at less than $5.00 in volume quantities.