Motorola DTTV chip. Cheaper DTV tuners means greater demand for MPEG2 decoders. The chip outputs a MPEG-2 data stream..........
Motorola creates front-end IC that meets DTTV standard
August 12, 1998
ELECTRONIC BUYERS NEWS via NewsEdge
Corporation : Silicon Valley -- After designing a
three-chip digital-television front end for the
European market, Motorola Inc.'s Semiconductor
Products Sector, Phoenix, has combined the
functions in a single IC.
The MC92314DH is designed for the Digital
Terrestrial Television (DTTV) standard used in the
European, Australian, and Chinese markets, which
demodulates Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial 2K
(DVB-T 2K) signals.
The device combines the company's three-chip
chipset into three corresponding functional blocks: a
2K-compliant coded orthogonal frequency-division
multiplex demodulator, a 2K mode Fast Fourier
Transform processor block, and a forward
error-correction unit. The chip outputs a standard
MPEG-2 data stream.
The integrated design uses a finer, 0.35-micron
process, cutting the $48 price tag of the older
chipset to less than $20 in volume, according to
Motorola.
To date, chip makers have generally focused on
back-end products as they assembled the industry's
digital-television infrastructure, according to
Jonathan Cassell, semiconductor analyst at
Dataquest Inc., San Jose. But as digital broadcasts
begin later this year, the front end is becoming an
area with huge growth potential.
And since the Motorola chip is designed for the front
end, OEMs don't need the programmability required
by the multitude of back-end standards. "It's a
no-brainer chip," Cassell said.
On the other hand, 2K-compliant front-end chips,
which are aimed at localized broadcast systems,
may soon have to comply with a newly minted 8K
demodulation standard that targets a broader
geographical region. To address this need, Motorola
said it will sample a second, 2K/8K chip to bridge
the 8K standard by December.
Samples of the MC92314 device in a 160-pin QFP
with a corresponding evaluation board are being sent
to beta-site customers. Volume production of the 2K
chip is set for December.
Copyright - 1998 CMP Media Inc.
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