BroadLight of Santa Clara, California, a fabless supplier of GPON semiconductors and software for FTTH applications, has announced a collaboration with Realtek Semiconductor of the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park in Taiwan.

Under a strategic alliance, the two companies are aiming to provide complete, turnkey reference platforms that integrate BroadLight's GPON and Active Ethernet (AE) processor technology with Realtek's RTL8366 and RTL8367 Ethernet switching technology.

The resulting single platform, complementing both companies' product offerings, will address GPON and AE CPE applications for a variety of FTTH deployments.

Realtek Semiconductor develops a range of IC products for communications networks, computer peripherals and multimedia applications.

The Realtek RTL8366, currently used in xDSL, cable modems, wireless routers and GEPON applications, supports 1000Base-T, 100Base-T and 10Base-T and integrates five low-power Gigabit PHYs, 6 Gigabit MACs, a switch engine and a Layer 2 and Layer 4 protocol parser.

The device also supports Realtek's 'Green Ethernet' technology, designed to provide power savings of 30-50% depending on operating conditions.