Toshiba puts Sigma's MPEG-4 into its home entertainment gateway:
Toshiba Showcases Complete TX49 RISC Processor-Based Reference Platform For Entertainment Home Gateways
Modular and Configurable PCI-Based Solution Gives Early Adopters a Head Start On Entertainment Gateway Designs and Development for the Home of the Future
Monday September 30, 9:30 am ET
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC) today disclosed details of a complete integrated TX49 Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processor-based reference platform for entertainment home gateway applications. Five leading companies joined with TAEC and cooperated in the development of the reference platform: Lineo, Systemonic, Sigma Designs, Vweb and Wipro Limited. The first demonstration of the reference platform will take place at CEATEC in Japan on October 1, 2002.
"Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba) expects the entertainment gateway to be the center of the home of the future. Toshiba's configurable leading-edge reference platform gives developers flexibility and a time-to-market advantage in creating solutions for the emerging entertainment gateway market. A time-to-market advantage is key for those companies who are driving and defining the standards of the future," said Farhad Mafie, vice president of the ASSP Business Unit at TAEC. "Toshiba's highly integrated, high-performance 64-bit TX49 MIPS-based RISC processor is at the heart of this reference platform. The solution includes complete hardware and system-level software, which are integrated and optimized for the best overall system performance. Together with the best-of-breed functionality and support from leading hardware and software players, our entertainment platform provides the most complete, flexible and high-performance solution," he added.
Toshiba's modular and configurable entertainment gateway reference platform incorporates the features and functions needed to build an entertainment gateway or add connectivity to products including televisions, personal computers, digital video recorders, personal video recorders, game consoles, etc. Various configurations are supported and new functions for emerging vertical markets can be added. Integrating both hardware and software on a Linux operating system platform, the entertainment home gateway reference solution includes:
-- Toshiba's TX49 64-bit RISC processor, which includes an integrated
memory controller, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
controller, Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitters, timers, a
serial peripheral interface, an Audio Codec '97 interface and a triple
Data Encryption Standard engine.
-- Toshiba's recently announced TC86C001FG companion chip, which supports
the PCI interface, the Inter-IC bus, Universal Serial Bus (USB) hosts,
USB devices, Integrated Drive Electronics Ultra-DMA mode 4 interface,
general parallel input/output (I/O) and serial I/O.
-- Sigma Designs' DVD/MPEG-4 decoder with full-screen MPEG-4 playback.
-- Systemonic's programmable Tondelayo silicon solution for 802.11a+b
W-LAN communication with "detect and connect" capability.
-- Vweb's MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 codec, MPEG-2 and -4 transcoding on the fly,
D1 size (720 x 486 pixels) MPEG-4 and a video streaming engine.
-- Lineo and Wipro's communications, virtual private network engine and
voice over IP on embedded Linux.
"Existing solutions from competitors fall far short of the flexible, diverse capability that is provided with Toshiba's entertainment gateway platform. Competing single-chip or chipset solutions narrowly target specific end-products and miss important functionality needed in an entertainment center such as 802.11 wireless solutions and support for MPEG streaming video," said Tetsuro Wada, platform development director of the ASSP Business Unit at TAEC. "Our customers can get up to a year's head start on writing software code and access to a complete bill of materials for speedy development. As well, their designs can evolve as their product needs and industry standards change." He added that the platform could be used for other emerging market applications such as an MPEG-4 camera and surveillance system.
Market Background
While the definition of an entertainment home gateway is still emerging, conceptually, it will serve as the pivotal point between public and home networks. It will connect the public packet network to the residential network. Incoming broadband data may be delivered via cable or DSL modem but in all cases will pass through the entertainment home gateway. Most likely implemented as a single box, the entertainment gateway will route the data, audio and video via a wired or wireless connection to a client product, such as a telephone, PC, TV, VCR or game console. The gateway server is also responsible for secure routing and switching, including content protection. |
