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azcentral.com
Digital TV set-top box from Motorola
By Jon Sidener
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 14, 1999
AUSTIN - A new digital TV set-top box from Motorola and New Jersey-based Sarnoff Corp. will bring digital programming to existing televisions for $500 or less, the companies said Monday.
Some of the components for the converters will be manufactured at Motorola's MOS-12 plant in Chandler and at the company's Mesa facility, said Bill Walker, Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector vice president.
The companies said the devices are expected to go on sale by the end of next year.
The set-top box announcement comes the same day reports surfaced that Motorola is negotiating to acquire General Instruments Inc., the largest supplier of set-top boxes to TeleCommunications Inc., which is owned by AT&T.
At $500, the component would be a significant price break over existing digital televisions, which cost $4,000 or more.
The devices will allow televisions to receive digital signals from both land-based stations and from DirecTV satellite.
The announcement was one of several made by Motorola at Horizons, its annual briefing for the press and media.
Motorola and Sarnoff developed the device under an agreement with El Segundo, Calif.-based DirecTV.
The design will be available to television manufacturers.
Sarnoff officials said they expect the price for the devices would go under $400 once production increased.
The new receiver uses the Motorola MCT series of DTV chip sets, which include the technology announced last month to solve reception problems in dense urban areas. Some sets were having problems when signals bounced off buildings, sending a duplicate signal to the receivers.
Motorola is producing engineering samples of the new chips in preparation for full production later this year.
Motorola also said Monday that it will buy out Toshiba Semiconductor Corp.'s interest in a joint wafer manufacturing operation in Sendai, Japan. Terms were not disclosed. |
