new customer:
Sichuan New Tech Digital Equipment Corp. of China to Use LSI Logic DVD Decoder Chip in New DVD Player Family
Provincial Government Backs NTC in Developing Local DVD Expertise
MILPITAS, Calif., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Sichuan New Tech Digital Equipment Corp. (NTC), of Shendu, China, has selected LSI Logic's L64020 DVD Decoder system-on-a-chip as the basis for a new family of DVD player systems it plans to bring to market in the fourth quarter of this year.
The L64020 DVD Decoder technology will enable NTC to develop a low-cost, high-performance DVD player while maintaining compatibility with China's huge installed base of players which use the older, lower-performance VCD (video compact disk) standard that became prevalent in China over the last decade.
"This OEM agreement, along with the financial backing it has obtained from the Szechuan provincial government, will enable NTC to build solid domestic engineering and manufacturing expertise in the DVD arena," said Alain Bismuth, LSI Logic's director of Consumer DVD Products. "This will result in both a boost for the consumer electronics industry within China and the creation of exportable products based on the emerging worldwide DVD technology standard."
The Chinese VCD player market, which represented approximately 15 million units in 1997, is expected to grow to almost 20 million units this year. With strong support from the Chinese government, major VCD manufacturers are planning to complete the transition from VCD to the new DVD standard by the year 2000, with most planning to start volume production in time for the 1998 Christmas and 1999 Chinese New Year seasons.
The OEM agreement occurs in conjunction with the opening last summer of LSI Logic's first office in Beijing, China. "As one of the first beneficiaries of LSI Logic local technical support in China, NTC will have an edge on ramping up production of its DVD players and getting units to market quickly," Bismuth added.
Mr. Chen Shi Ping, President of Sichuan New Tech Digital Equipment Co. commented that he was pleased to see a successful cooperation between NTC and LSI Logic (NYSE: LSI) in the area of DVD players, and that he hoped that this current collaboration will help strengthen the ties between the two companies in the future.
Mr. Chen pointed out that NTC was speeding up its final test and validation process in order to ensure volume production before the end of this year.
The LSI Logic L64020 DVD Decoder, introduced in October 1996, provides the industry's highest-quality trick-play features, including picture search, freeze frame, frame advance and reverse, variable-speed, and synchronized fast-forward of video and audio, and zoom. The chip eliminates "fade to black" in search functions and video "tearing" in fast-forward searches. System designers can customize these trick-play modes and the player's user interface to address specific market requirements. Fully compliant with industry standards, the L64020 also features the industry's lowest available power consumption.
The L64020 is supported by a comprehensive range of DVD player reference design and manufacturing kit, designed to speed up OEMs entry into the DVD player market, by providing them with, ready-to-production solutions which include all the hardware and system software necessary to build highly cost effective DVD/VCD players. |
