Intellon Corporation, the leading provider of HomePlug-compatible IC’s for home networking, networked entertainment and connected powerline applications, announced that Motorola Ventures, the equity investment arm of Motorola Inc., has invested in Intellon’s Series B equity financing round to further Intellon’s growth, advancing the company’s product and market development opportunities in the growing area of powerline communications.

Intellon currently offers its customers two distinct silicon solutions for HomePlug-based networking. The globally recognized HomePlug 1.0 standard broke new ground 4 years ago by providing the industry with a home connectivity solution which obviated the need for new wiring, thus creating a home network through the use of the home power grid. Today, HomePlug 1.0 solutions are in use on six continents and remain the most stable and easy to use home networking solution available. Recently, Intellon introduced its HomePlug 1.0 with Turbo chipset, offering additional performance gains to meet the demands of emerging content distribution applications such as IPTV, whole-house audio and VoIP traffic management.

Later this year, Intellon will introduce its highly anticipated HomePlug AV 200Mbps chipset, the INT6000. This technology will elevate the state of the art of home networking by providing a stable, ubiquitous and world standard broadband backbone. With an architecture designed to meet the needs of HD content distribution, as well as providing all the benefits the industry has come to expect from HomePlug technology, the INT6000 will represent a watershed event in the advancement of the digital home.

Intellon is also dedicated to bringing a Broadband over Powerline (BPL), or to-the-home, standard to market in conjunction with the HomePlug Powerline Alliance. The HomePlug Powerline Alliance is an industry-led initiative established to create specifications for in-home powerline networking, command & control among platforms within the home and broadband access services to the home. Intellon is among the leading companies driving the HomePlug BPL standard in the industry. Intellon’s existing HomePlug-compatible ICs are already in use in BPL applications.

“Selecting strategic partners for this financing round required significant diligence on our part,” said Charlie Harris, chairman and CEO of Intellon. “As a pioneer and innovator in communications, Motorola is a natural fit, given our mutual objectives. We are pleased to have them as an investor in our company.”

“Motorola remains committed to developing and delivering next generation technologies like Broadband over PowerLine (BPL) for its customers,” said Matthew I. Growney, managing director of Motorola Ventures. “Intellon’s HomePlug® chip portfolio will provide Motorola with many different connectivity solutions for within the home and to the home applications.”

HomePlug is recognized by the industry as a key technology in the digital home networking ecosystem. High reliability, resistance to interference, simplicity of setup and strong Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms make powerline ideal for real-time entertainment content delivery, particularly whole-house audio and networked video.