Broadcom/C-Cube in some of the same boxes...............
Pace, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer and Scientific-Atlanta Select Broadcom's New Chip for Digital Cable-TV Interactive Set-Top Boxes
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CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 1999--
Broadcom's Interactive Cable-TV Solution Integrates Downstream, Upstream and Control Channel Functions onto A Single Chip
Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq:BRCM), a leading provider of integrated circuits enabling broadband communications to and throughout the home and business, today announced that Pace Micro Technology, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer and Scientific-Atlanta have selected Broadcom's new single-chip transmission solution for their two-way digital cable-TV interactive set-top boxes and digital televisions. These design wins reinforce Broadcom's position as the leading provider of transmission chips for the digital cable-TV market worldwide.
Through advanced integration, Broadcom has developed a new single-chip, bi-directional cable-TV transmission solution, which provides these companies with a much more cost-effective, integrated system design. Broadcom's new chip is also the first Point of Deployment (POD)-compliant transmission solution that features the separation of conditional access, which will allow set-top boxes to be optimized for retail distribution.
The Broadcom(R) BCM3125 is the most recent addition to Broadcom's comprehensive digital cable-TV set-top box chip family. When combined with Broadcom's single-chip DOCSIS cable modem, 2D/3D TV graphics engine chip and set-top box MPEG-2/AC-3 decoder, the BCM3125 makes up a complete silicon platform for high-end interactive digital set-top box designs. These boxes will allow for new cable TV services such as video on demand (VOD), broadband Internet access and electronic commerce.
"The companies using our BCM3125 represent key design wins for Broadcom in the worldwide digital cable-TV set-top box market," said Rich Nelson, Broadcom's Director of Cable-TV Products. "Broadcom will continue to partner with these leading vendors to integrate our new transmission solution, helping drive down the cost and improve the performance of digital cable set-top boxes worldwide."
The BCM3125 is a highly integrated solution that combines three chips into one. It includes an in-band video channel 64/256-QAM receiver, an out-of-band control channel QPSK receiver and a QPSK/16-QAM upstream transmitter. The chip also supports all major physical layer standards, allowing Broadcom's customers to build a single platform for worldwide deployment.
Pace plans to use Broadcom's chip in future set-top boxes and has purchase commitments from the three major cable operators in the United Kingdom -- Cable & Wireless Communications, NTL and Telewest. Panasonic plans to use Broadcom's chip in their OpenCable digital TV products. Philips has a digital cable set-top box purchase commitment from MediaOne, which has more than 5 million subscribers in 17 states. Pioneer is working with SCM Microsystems on a POD-based set-top box design and has a purchase commitment from Time Warner. Scientific-Atlanta is incorporating the BCM3125 in its Explorer(R) digital interactive set-top family. The company has purchase orders or commitments from 17 of the top cable operators in the United States and Canada, including Time Warner, TCI, Cox, Comcast and Adelphia, representing more than 18 million cable subscribers.
Customer Quotes
"Broadcom's integrated, front-end transmission chip will reduce our system design time, enabling us to meet the time-to-market demands of the rapidly growing digital cable-TV market in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States," said Andy Trott, Director of Engineering for Cable Products at Pace Micro Technology.
"The growth for digital cable-TV is very dependent on the manufacturer's ability to develop a low-cost solution," said Sai Naimpally, Vice President of Panasonic AVC Americon Laboratories, Inc. "Broadcom's integrated front-end chip will reduce the manufacturing time and cost of our new OpenCable(tm) products."
"We chose the BCM3125 solution because of Broadcom's technical leadership in the cable industry and proven track record as a world-class semiconductor supplier," said Jos Swillens, General Manager of Philips' Digital Receivers. "In addition to the BCM3125, Broadcom has been able to provide us with a number of different chips that fit into several of our set-top box designs."
"Broadcom's continued effort toward higher silicon integration is allowing us to develop digital cable set-top boxes that are in line with our consumer home entertainment pricing model for the retail channel," said Tim Takahashi, President of Pioneer Digital Technologies.
"Within 20 weeks of defining the specification, Broadcom delivered a fully-functional device that met our stringent performance requirements," said Michael P. Harney, Scientific-Atlanta's Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Digital Subscriber Networks. "Broadcom's on-time delivery is enabling us to meet our time-to-market goals with a higher performance, lower cost solution."
BCM3125 Product Information
The Broadcom BCM3125 is the cable industry's next step in advancing the worldwide deployment of digital interactive cable services through integration and cost reduction. By combining a 64/256-QAM downstream receiver, a QPSK control channel receiver and a QPSK/16-QAM upstream transmitter, the BCM3125 takes the functionality of a standard multi-chip solution and integrates it onto a single chip. The integrated analog front-end includes 10-bit A/D and D/A converters as well as two 6-bit A/D converters. This progression to a single chip will reduce component space and reduce the overall cost of customer designs. Broadcom continues to integrate all of the analog and digital functionality into a low cost digital CMOS process, making the BCM3125 and other Broadcom integrated circuits more cost effective.
The BCM3125 single-chip solution supports the ITU-T J.83 Annex A/B/C worldwide standards as well as OpenCable, MCNS DOCSIS and DVB/DAVIC standards, ensuring universal interoperability. Capable of supporting 6MHz and 8MHz channels, the BCM3125 meets both NTSC and PAL standards, respectively. The BCM3125 is compliant with the DVB/DAVIC, DigiCipher(R) II and Starvue II out-of-band schemes, and the out-of-band QPSK receiver provides flexibility for IF or baseband inputs. With direct interface to a Point of Deployment (POD) module, the BCM3125 is compliant with the current POD OpenCable standard, which will help expedite the retail sales of cable set-top boxes. The integrated QAMLink(R) in-band receiver in the BCM3125 incorporates a programmable gain amplifier, a 10-bit A/D converter, a digital demodulator, Nyquist filters, tracking loops, an adaptive-decision feedback equalizer, and a forward error correction (FEC) decoder supporting ITU-T J.83 Annex A/B/C (DVB/DAVIC and MCNS DOCSIS standards).
The integrated QPSK out-of-band receiver in the BCM3125 incorporates a baseband interface to dual 6-bit A/D converters or an IF interface to a single A/D converter, a digital demodulator, Nyquist filters, tracking loops, an adaptive-decision feedback equalizer, and a DigiCipher II /DVB/DAVIC FEC decoder
The integrated upstream transmitter in the BCM3125 incorporates a programmable Starvue II/MCNS DOCSIS/DVB/DAVIC FEC encoder, a pre-equalization filter, a variable rate QPSK/16-QAM modulator capable of 25 Mbps upstream data rates, and a 200 MHz 10-bit D/A converter with output power control interfaces, which can directly output a 0-65 MHz digitally tunable RF center frequency.
To assist customers in bringing set-top boxes using the BCM3125 to market more quickly, Broadcom has developed the BCM93125 QAMLink Set-top Box Transmission Reference Design. The BCM93125 is a complete front-end module that inputs signals directly from the cable plant and outputs an MPEG-2 transport stream and control channel data. Upstream digital data can be input directly to the BCM93125 and sent over the cable. The module comes with software source code, schematics and Gerber files.
The BCM3125 is packaged in a 160-pin PQFP and is priced at $29 in 100K quantities. The chip is now available in sample quantities, which are shipping to Pace, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, and Scientific-Atlanta.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a leading provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable broadband digital transmission of voice, data and video content to and throughout the home and within the business enterprise. Using proprietary technologies and advanced design methodologies, the company designs, develops and supplies integrated circuits for some of the most significant broadband communications markets, including the markets for cable set-top boxes, cable modems, high-speed office networks, home networking, direct broadcast satellite and terrestrial digital broadcast, and digital subscriber line (xDSL). Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and may be contacted at 949-450-8700 or at www.broadcom.com.
Safe Harbor Statement of Broadcom Corporation under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "may," "will" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors..
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with commercial introduction and production of the BCM3125 product include, but are not limited to, the timing and successful completion of technology and product development through production readiness; the rate of adoption by our present and future customers and end-users of Broadcom's digital set-top technologies and products; the timing of customer qualification of our products and the risks of non-qualification; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders; the loss of a significant customer; the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; intellectual property disputes; fluctuations in manufacturing yields and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; risks and uncertainties associated with international operations; our ability to retain and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the numbers, with the capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; the quality of our products; difficulties we encounter in achieving higher levels of design integration and in migrating product designs to smaller geometry processes; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; business disruptions, claims, expenses and other difficulties resulting from "Year 2000" problems in computer-based systems used by us, our suppliers or our customers; general economic conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address; and other factors.
Our recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Qand other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that may affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.
Broadcom(R), QAMLink(R) and the pulse logo are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
CONTACT: Broadcom Trade Press
Laura Brandlin, 949/450-8700
Director, Marketing Communications
lbrandlin@broadcom.com
or
Broadcom Business Press
Bill Blanning or Cristine Morris, 949/450-8700
Corporate Communications Department
blanning@broadcom.com or cmorris@broadcom.com
or
Broadcom Technical Contact
Peter Schenitzki, 949/450-8700
Product Line Manager
peters@broadcom.com
or
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
Esteban Torres, 949/585-5663
etorres@broadcom.com
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