Routers get a 64-bit brain that can control the whole smart home

Routers have been dumb for a long time. But like other smart appliances, they’re getting brainier. Thanks to new 64-bit quadcore processors, a new generation of routers will be able to control a lot of the appliances in a smart home.

Courtesy of Broadcom, wired and wireless routers will soon have a 1.8-gigahertz, 64-bit quadcore processor with the central processing unit (CPU) power to run smart home and Internet of Things applications.

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High-end routers are getting saddled with the task of connecting devices that used to be dumb. As those devices get smarter, you need something even smarter to control them. And that burden is increasingly falling on the router, which routes the Internet into various devices in your home. Broadcom showed off the tech at the 2016 International CES, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas this week.

The BCM4908 chip from Broadcom enables equipment and service providers to deliver data throughout the home at a rate of 5 gigabits per second — without taxing the CPU. It also supports the increased speeds coming into the home via Google Fiber and Comcast 2Gbps.

“With this new SoC, Broadcom is driving home network connectivity to the next level,” said Manny Patel, a director of marketing at Broadcom, in a statement. “By increasing the CPU performance and adding advanced features, we’re enabling OEMs to build more powerful home routers that address the increased bandwidth requirements needed to support the continued consumption of high-bandwidth content, the growing demand for UltraHD as well as the growing emergence of more IoT and smart home applications.”

The chip also has a dedicated security processor to enable hardware virtual private network acceleration. The chip is available in sample quantities now.