The MAX2986 powerline transceiver utilizes state-of-theart CMOS design techniques to deliver the highest level of performance and flexibility. This highly integrated design combines the media access control layer (MAC) and the physical layer (PHY) in a single chip. The MAX2986 digital baseband and its companion device, the MAX2980* analog front-end (AFE), offer a complete high-speed powerline communication solution that is fully compatible with third-party HomePlug 1.0 devices. The MAX2986 digital transceiver utilizes Maxim's advanced OFDM powerline engine with adaptive data rates up to 14Mbps. The MAX2986's open architecture allows extensive programmability, feature enhancement capability, and improved testability in the MAC for optimum performance. Hence, this device is aimed at applications such as local area networks (LANs), audio, voice, home automation, industrial automation, and broadband-over-powerline (BPL), as well as spectral shaping and tone notching capability, providing an unparalleled level of flexibility to conform to the disparate local regulatory bodies. Maxim's modified OFDM technique allows shaping of power spectral density of the transmitted signal arbitrarily to accommodate any desired subcarrier set and to place spectral nulls at any unwanted frequency location. The automatic channel adaptation and interference rejection features of the MAX2986 guarantee outstanding performance. Privacy is provided by a 56-bit DES encryption with key management. The MAX2986 operates with IEEE 802.03 standard media independent interface (MII), reduced media independent interface (rMII), buffered FIFO data communication, IEEE 802.03 compatible 10/100 Ethernet MAC, or USB 1.1 interfaces. These interfaces allow the MAX2986 to be paired with almost any data communication devices to use in a variety of information appliances.