Fujitsu is ready to take on Broadcom for the front of the box. TV/COM was a leader in the front end..............................
eet.com
Fujitsu Micro struts its consumer-electronics stuff
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
(05/19/99, 5:50 p.m. EDT)
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc. told analysts on Tuesday (May 18) that it plans to march full steam ahead into consumer multimedia, Web-appliance and digital-TV markets with ASICs, application-specific standard products and system-on-chip devices.
In particular, the San Jose, Calif., subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd. is shining a spotlight on its Infotainment group, formed here only a year ago. Ali Erdengiz, director of Fujitsu's Infotainment product line, said the 12-engineer group offers solutions for applications ranging from set-top boxes and Internet appliances to DTV. "We define a 'set-top' loosely," he said. "It involves everything from cable and satellite boxes, digital TV to telephony products with Web-browsing capabilities."
For companies like Fujitsu, whose semiconductor business has catered to more traditional computer and telecommunication markets, the push into digital consumer products is a new spin on its own system-LSI business.
"We understand we are not really known as a consumer chip company," acknowledged Hideo Kikuchi, vice president of ASIC business at Fujitsu Microelectronics. "But we do have all the blocks necessary to build everything from digital set-top boxes to HDTV." The company demonstrated several such products at the National Association of Broadcasters show earlier this month.
Fujitsu recently vowed to enter the DTV market, where only a handful of IC companies are offering high-priced chip-set solutions.
Central to its DTV chip set for the U.S. market, coming this summer, are three devices: a high-definition MPEG-2 decoder; 8VSB demodulator; and separate Dolby Digital decoder chip running on Fujitsu's homegrown 32-bit DSP.
Fujitsu's satellite and cable strategy is to leverage its A/D and D/A expertise as well as front-end chips like QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and QPSK (quadrature phase-shift keying) demodulators designed into cable modems and satellite boxes.
Further, Fujitsu said it will pursue the digital consumer market via both application-specific standard products and ASICs.
Asked how Fujitsu would effectively compete against market leaders like Broadcom Corp., which has successfully used its front-end communication chip expertise to land a huge set-top box design-win with General Instrument, Erdengiz said, "There is nothing wrong with Broadcom's business model. But Broadcom doesn't have an ASIC capability, while we do."
On the front-end chip business either for terrestrial DTV or cable set-tops, the number of silicon suppliers is relatively limited compared with those supplying back-end solutions. "A lot of OEMs would love to get an alternative source for their systems," Erdengiz said.
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