Call me old fashioned but of the different types of "no new wires" home networking technologies, using the power lines in my apartment as a network sounds a little scary. While I know logically that it's perfectly safe, some deep-seated childhood fear of messing with electrical outlets comes into play whenever such a system comes up. For those of you who don't have such residual twitchiness left over from your tender years, the idea of rigging up a network using your home's internal electrical wiring is gaining a certain amount of popularity. Conexant Systems is a purveyor of such stuff and just let us know about an integrated physical-layer transceiver (PHY) device for the home powerline networking market that enables up to 14 megabits per second networking rates over a home's existing electrical wiring. The CX11647 is supports the HomePlug 1.0 specification and Conexant says it has been optimized for shared broadband access, low-latency, high-reliability networking in applications including residential gateways and routers, multi-player gaming and entertainment, audio/video streaming and Internet protocol (IP) telephony. The HomePlug 1.0 spec provides a means of connecting personal computers, peripherals, entertainment devices, IP telephones, and other information appliances via any broadband home power outlet. Conexant's CX11647 HomePlug 1.0 transceiver includes prioritized random access, contention-free access, and segment bursting. The CX11647 HomePlug 1.0 transceiver will sample this month. Volume production is scheduled to commence in the first quarter of calendar year 2002. The device operates on both +2.5 V and +3.3 V power supplies and is packaged in a 144-pin low quad flat pack (LQFP). It's priced at $35 in quantities of 1,000 units.