3. Inside Details

Since Intellon came up with the HomePlug 1.0 plus Turbo technology, it's no surprise that the three products tested use the same Intellon INT5500 chipset. Figure 1 shows the Actiontec Ethernet adapter internals, where you can see the Intellon chipset,

Figure 1: Actiontec HPT100 internal view
(click image to enlarge)

Figure 2 confirms that the 4-port "hub" Actiontec offering actually features a 10/100 switch, courtesy of the Marvell 88E6060 6-Port Fast Ethernet Switch that is a member of Marvell's Link Street switch chip line. I'd like to see Actiontec both change the product name, plus add the Ethernet port speed to its product literature, to better inform consumers of what they're buying.

Figure 2: Actiontec HPT400 internal view
(click image to enlarge)

The NETGEAR XE104 innards pictured in Figures 3 and 4 show essentially the same electrical design (which I'm guessing is a copy of an Intellon reference design), but with a stacked two-board approach. This is necessary to get everything into a nicely-designed wall-wart format.

Figure 3: NETGEAR XE104 internal assembled view
(click image to enlarge)

Figure 4: NETGEAR XE104 internal disassembled
(click image to enlarge)

Finally, at first glance, you might mistake the SMC board shot in Figure 5 for the Actiontec "hub" in Figure 2, which also uses a separated-at-birth plastic enclosure that differs only in its larger size. But a closer look shows a board design that's essentially the same as the single-port Actiontec with things moved around to accomodate SMC's choice of desktop box vs. Actiontec's wall-plugged "wart" form factor.

Figure 5: SMCHT-ETH internal view
(click image to enlarge)