VLSI front end chip for settops...................................
techweb.com
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Multimedia ICs -- Front-end devices address demodulation, error correction -- VLSI rolls set-top chip line
By Junko Yoshida
London - VLSI Technology Inc. unveiled a family of front-end chips for digital cable, satellite and terrestrial set-top boxes at the Cable & Satellite Conference here last week. The line includes a single-chip demodulator for European terrestrial digital TV broadcasting; an integrated cable set-top front-end chip that handles 64- and 256-QAM modulated signals; and a return-channel modem chip for two-way cable set-tops that is compatible with both the Davic 1.1 and Multimedia Cable Network Systems (MCNS) standards.
David Tahmassebi, director of marketing at the San Jose, Calif., chip maker, called the introductions "a significant extension" to VLSI Technology's set-top IC product line, the ViSTA family. The move positions VLSI as a leading supplier of key components for digital set-tops both in Europe and the United States, he said.
VLSI's single-chip solution for terrestrial digital TV, designated VES9600, is designed to demodulate the coded orthogonal frequency-division modulation signals specified in Europe's DVB-T standard. Its launch propels VLSI into a race with other leading chip vendors working on DVB-T front-end solutions-such as Motorola, SGS-Thomson and LSI Logic-timed for the terrestrial DTV rollout in Europe, scheduled for this fall.
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