Comcast Corp. is going to step up its pace in digital-gateway boxes thanks to
an influx of new units from Pace Micro Technology plc.
The British set-top-box maker has started shipping its "DC-510" digital
gateway to Comcast -- the first phase of its three-year, 300,000-unit deal with
the MSO.
It is the second major deployment for Pace, which also has a box deal with
Time Warner Cable.
The DC-510 boxes will be heading for Comcast systems that use Scientific-Atlanta Inc.-driven conditional-access systems. Pace plans to ship boxes toward the end of this year that conform to Motorola Inc. systems.
Pace claims that the entry-level DC-510 is the world's smallest digital
gateway, measuring 12 inches by nine inches by two-and-a-half inches. It uses a single-chip design that can handle 170 million instructions per
second (MIPS). Able to support video-on-demand services, the DC-510 also has a
Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC) cable modem.
