LAN & WAN News

Marvell said it has acquired Spanish powerline chipmaker DS2.

DS2 was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Valencia, Spain. It was a global supplier of Universal Powerline Association (UPA) compatible chipsets and developer of G.hn technology, which aims to combine, powerline, coaxial, and phoneline wiring within a single wired home network.

Marvell is following Atheros' lead in adding powerline networking into its technology portfolio. Atheros acquired HomePlug chipmaker Intellon last year.

Powerline networking has been most popular in non-U.S. markets, but has had a difficult time overcoming Wi-Fi's dominance as an Ethernet alternative in the U.S. Part of powerline's problem has been the competition between DS2's 200 Mbps powerline technology and Intellon's HomePlug.

While DS2 helped spur Intellon to get its 200 Mbps HomePlug AV technology to market, the two technologies were not interoperable and did not coexist well. Consumer networking companies then compounded the problem by not clearly identifying the technology used in their powerline products, leading to consumer confusion and bad product experiences.

Marvell said it will continue to sell DS2 products and support existing customers and develop and integrate DS2 core technology into its existing IP portfolio.

At the close of the acquisition, approximately 75 employees joined Marvell's worldwide development team. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.