EchoStar Selects LSI Logic's Integra Chips for Its Dish Network Set-Top Box
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MILPITAS, CA- May 9, 1996 - LSI Logic Corporation, developer of powerful system on a chip technology for the digital age, today announced that chips from its Integra 1000 family will be used in state of the art DISH Network (Digital Sky Highway) set-top boxes from EchoStar Communications Corporation. The Englewood, Colorado-based manufacturer and distributor of satellite television systems will provide these set-top boxes to U.S. consumers as part of a package that includes popular and premium television programming channels.
The LSI Logic chips -- a satellite TV receiver, an MPEG 2 audio/video decoder and a customized transport chip -- together form the heart of the new TV set-top box. The chips receive signals from an 18 inch satellite dish, and convert them into sharp MPEG 2 images with crisp CD-quality audio and fast on-screen guides.
LSI Logic's Integra architecture consolidates an entire set-top box into only a few chips which considerably eases system implementation and reduces overall manufacturing costs. Customers have the flexibility of selecting all or pieces of the Integra architecture, depending on the requirements of the end-product.
"The Integra architecture was instrumental in delivering a cost-effective set-top box to the consumer, enabling EchoStar to rapidly emerge as a key player in the Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) market," said Mark Jackson, Director of Engineering at EchoStar. "We plan to have an installed base of five million systems by the end of 1998 and LSI Logic's Integra architecture will play a key role in providing the system-level integration capabilities needed to achieve this goal."
"This announcement is yet another example of LSI Logic's dominant share of architectural design wins in the digital set-top box market," said Wilfred J. Corrigan, Chairman and CEO of LSI Logic. "The reason we can get customers like EchoStar to market faster than anyone else is through our CoreWarer design program, which combines complex building blocks into powerful system-on-a-chip designs. The Integra chipset was built using our CoreWarer program and consolidates an entire set-top box into just a few components, making it the lowest cost and highest performance set-top box on the market."
The chipset is already in production and EchoStar is currently shipping these boxes.
DISH (Digital Sky Highway) Network, EchoStar Communications Corporation's state-of-the-art direct broadcast satellite (DBS) system, offers retailers and consumers satellite television programming, MPEG-2 hardware, installation and financing and leasing. A total of over 200 channels of digital video, audio and data services are expected to be delivered to homes throughout the continental United States with the launch of EchoStar II later this year.
Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, EchoStar is also involved in the design, manufacture, distribution, and installation of direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television products to customers worldwide, domestic distribution of DTH programming and consumer financing of EchoStar's domestic DTH products and services. EchoStar's international operations include sales and service locations in Holland, Spain, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and India.
LSI Logic continues to offer customers the most extensive suite of proven digital video cores. These cores can be integrated together into system-on-a-chip designs for consumer applications such as cable and satellite set-top boxes, digital video disk players and video game machines. LSI Logic's cores include Reed-Solomon and Viterbi error correction decoders, descramblers, transport demultiplexors, single chip MPEG 2 audio/video decoders, Dolby AC-3 decoders, Quadrature Phase Shift Key (QPSK) demodulators, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and MIPS MiniRISC microprocessors.
LSI Logic Corporation (NYSE:LSI), The System on a Chip Company, is a leading supplier of custom high-performance semiconductors, with operations worldwide. The company enables customers to build complete systems on a single chip with its CoreWarer design program, thereby increasing performance, lowering system costs and accelerating time to market. LSI Logic develops application optimized products in partnership with trendsetting customers, and operates leading-edge, high-volume manufacturing facilities to produce submicron chips. The company maintains a high level of quality, as demonstrated by its ISO 9000 certifications. LSI Logic is headquartered at 1551 McCarthy Blvd., Milpitas, California 95035, (408)433-8000, lsilogic.com.
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Editor's Notes:
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