The 50G PON gateway SoC supports edge AI, Wi-Fi 8

The first 50G passive optical network (PON) gateway system-on-chip (SoC) incorporates a neural processing unit (NPU) for edge AI inference and offers native compatibility with the Wi-Fi 8 standard. Broadcom’s BCM68850 CPE gateway claims to offer NPU-accelerated solutions across cable, PON, Wi-Fi, and set-top box platforms, ensuring resilient infrastructure for AI offloading and high-efficiency multi-gigabit workloads.

BCM68850 aims to reshape the broadband edge as the home’s central intelligence hub. Source: Broadcom

The gateway SoC delivers full 50G throughput to meet multi-gigabit bandwidth. Besides a dedicated NPU, which reduces cloud latency and enhances data privacy by keeping sensitive information on premises, it also features a dedicated CPU for third-party and operator applications that leverage industry-standard middleware.

That, in turn, optimizes CPU and memory resources to ensure the home gateway can handle the massive data throughput required by edge AI-centric applications. “Home gateway solutions such as Broadcom’s BCM68850 SoC are critical to future-proofing the network edge,” said Jaimie Lenderman, practice leader for optical, IP, and broadband infrastructure market research at Omdia.

The standalone 50G PON Gateway SoC claims to provide an industry-standard ITU-T path for operators to future-proof their networks by processing and transmitting high-density payloads in a fraction of a millisecond. Moreover, its “burst and release” capability ensures near-zero-jitter essential for latency-critical applications.

Broadcom is currently sampling the BCM68850 home gateway SoC to its early access customers and partners.

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