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To: John Rieman who wrote (36922)	10/27/1998 6:29:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

ATI launches video-in, TV-out display chip By Junko Yoshida EE Times (10/27/98, 4:16 p.m. EDT) THORNHILL, Ontario — In an attempt to become a full-solution provider to the set-top market, ATI Technologies Inc. has launched what it calls the industry's first single-chip video-in/TV-out display IC. Separately, Cirrus Logic Inc. has unveiled new multistandard TV encoder D/A converters designed to reduce the cost of DVD movie players and digital set-top boxes. With its latest release and with its recent purchase of Chromatic, ATI is "no longer just a graphics company, but is capable of offering all the key components necessary to go into a set-top or entertainment PC," said Kevin Oerton, group product manager for desktop graphics component at ATI (Thornhill, Ontario). A number of PC graphics chip vendors are paying closer attention to the consumer-electronics space these days, and Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. are both redefining their roles and influence on a nascent digital cable set-top market. ATI's new "Rage Theater" chip promises to deliver high-quality, cost-effective video decoding and encoding capabilities for set-tops and multimedia PCs. The chip also incorporates a one-pin S/PDIF interface to support 5.1 Dolby Digital channels or two-channel PCM output. Previously, similar video-in/TV-out solutions were offered to OEMs by several discrete video decoder and encoder chips, separate crystals and analog video switches. "They cost more, took up a lot of design space and design aggravation," said Ed Callway, multimedia architect at ATI. Although the company has never been a big video-in or TV-out chip supplier before, ATI said it has been working on multiple generations of its own video decoding and encoding technologies. As far as Rage Theater's video-in/TV-out quality is concerned, ATI engineers incorporated special noise-reduction circuitry that eliminates high-frequency noise. Competing solutions also have a similar noise-reduction filter, "but our circuitry is capable of taking out white speckles while keeping the edges of images sharp," noted ATI's Callway. Meeting the demands of consumer-electronics manufacturers who often need to market a system not only in the United States, but to the worldwide market, the ATI RageTheater chip accepts S-Video and composite inputs in NTSC, PAL and SECAM. To keep its TV-out feature flexible, it also supports composite, S-Video and SCART-RBG, NTSC and PAL standards. Similarly, to maintain flexibility for video-in, the Rage Theater supports video standards including ITU-656, and VESA-developed Video Interface Port (VIP)1.1, in addition to ATI's proprietary ATI Multimedia Channel (AMC) interface. Integrated into the ATI chip are VBI capabilities for closed captioning, teletext and Intercast, in addition to Macrovision 7.01 and Copy Generation Management System (CGMS) copy-protection schemes. For quality enhancement, the chip also comes with 10-bit D/A converters, compared to the conventional 8-bit D/A converters. Similarly, Cirrus Logic's new CS4954 and CS4955 TV encoder D/A converters also feature 10-bit D/As. Their six 10-bit D/As are software configurable, making it possible for OEMs to use all popular output formats of video. The multiformat output is also ideal for systems in Europe where SCART connector compatibility is a must. Unlike ATI's Rage Theater, Cirrus Logic's TV encoder D/As do not incorporate a video-in feature or support audio S/PDIF output. But they incorporate a rich feature set of encoding capabilities. They include register-selectable video waveform adjustments and filtering options, wide-screen signaling, the CGMS, optional progressive scan, VBI data encoding and closed captioning and multi-standard teletext generation. The CS4955 includes Macrovision revision 7.01 anti-taping output protection. Both chips are available today, priced under $3 each in 100,000 units. ATI's Rage Theater, priced at $18 in lots of 10,000, will sample in November. Volume production is slated for January. (See the link for a diagram.) eet.com