LSI Logic aims set-top chip at interactive TV
By Will Wade
(05/17/99, 12:03 p.m. EDT)
MILPITAS, Calif. — LSI Logic Corp. is pushing hard to open up the set-top box market with a single-chip decoder device. But since the future of that segment is still taking shape, the company is betting the SC2000 chip will offer the functions needed to hit it big, in a market that doesn't yet know what will be required.
"The set-top boxes of today offer very limited functionality; they are essentially just good for pay-per-view movies," said Nicholas Dunn, product marketing manager for set-top boxes at the consumer-products division of LSI Logic (Milpitas, Calif.). "This chip is for the box of the future — a convergence box."
The SC2000 features a 108-MHz MIPS-based processor core, a graphics engine, MPEG decoding capabilities, audio functions and several standard I/O interfaces, including DVD. It supports television input from any digital source, including standard cable, satellite or terrestrial systems. Dunn stressed that the chip is expected to work in every regional market.
The SC2000 is priced less than $20 in volume. It is sampling now and will ramp next quarter.
'Next stage'
Dunn said systems based around the chip will also feature Internet browsing capabilities, and he predicted that home banking and shopping could see widespread use in consumer living rooms through future set-top boxes. "The next stage in pushing this into the home is interactivity," he said.
One stumbling block to the technology is the lack of robust two-way data-transmission capabilities. LSI's current product can receive digital TV or Internet traffic but relies on standard modem technology, generally over telephone lines, for sending data upstream.
Widespread industry speculation predicts convergence in the near future of Internet and television services, linked through both PCs and more powerful set-top boxes.
Dunn conceded that the SC2000, which depends on traditional broadcast technology for its digital input, does not fully meet the expectations for a fully converged system but said it is a step toward that goal. "People aren't really sure where this market is going," he said. "It is becoming very fuzzy what these boxes are supposed to be able to do."
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