Sun Chips to Power Scientific-Atlanta's Digital Set-Top
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SA won't be including a MPEG decoder in the integrated Sparc chip, so they still need one from somebody.
-Dave
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biz.yahoo.com
Up To One Million Sun microSPARC(TM)-II Chips to Power Smart Terminals
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Sun Microsystems Inc today announced that Scientific-Atlanta Inc (S-A) has licensed Sun's microSPARC(TM)-II RISC processor core for use in its Explorer(TM) 2000 digital set-top terminals. Time Warner Cable expects to purchase up to one million microSPARC(TM)-II core-based, digital set-tops with delivery planned to start this year.
Scientific-Atlanta will develop, manufacture, incorporate, and market and license large integrated chips based on the microSPARC-II core. Scientific-Atlanta is scheduled to deliver up to 550,000 Explorer 2000 terminals to Time Warner Cable, while Toshiba America Inc. and Pioneer are scheduled to provide the remaining terminals.
"The microSPARC-II core's performance and reliability coupled with Sun's technical support will get us to market quickly with lower development costs for the Explorer 2000 terminal," said Robert Van Orden, director of digital video systems for Scientific-Atlanta. "Working with Sun, we gain considerable competitive advantage as we move into the next generation of delivering digital services."
Rick Sizemore, president of Total Research in Multimedia, states, "With all the processors that are currently available, Scientific-Atlanta had to go with one that not only offered enough power and low-cost for today's set-top market, but enough power for tomorrow's set-top market. In my view, that is the number one reason S-A went with Sun's microSPARC-II core."
"Sun's strategy of openly licensing microSPARC technology allows companies like Scientific-Atlanta, an industry leader in set-top terminals, to develop custom solutions while gaining a tremendous time-to-market advantage," states Chet Silvestri, president, Sun Microelectronics. "The microSPARC architecture provides the level of performance required to process the tremendous amount of data required for the high-quality digital video and audio applications in Scientific-Atlanta's Explorer 2000 terminal."
Sun's microSPARC-II processor is an implementation of the SPARC(TM) V8 standard processor architecture which targets embedded applications with high integration. With a DRAM controller and an SBus I/O controller integrated on-board, designers only need DRAM and SBus peripherals to complete the system. The microSPARC core's open-platform enables Scientific-Atlanta to easily port the PowerTV operating system which enables graphics, audio and data management within the terminal.
One of the key features of the Explorer 2000 terminal, enabled by the microSPARC-II core, will be its "real time reverse." This is a built-in reverse path transmitter that communicates back to the headend, the control center of a cable TV system, in real-time for two-way services, such as Internet access and eventually video on-demand.
The Scientific-Atlanta chip will include the microSPARC-II core, MPEG-2 system demultiplex, network interface processing and SCTE/CableLabs standard decryption engine, and I/O interfaces, among other functions. |
