[opendtv] HD Radio chip marks SiPort's recovery
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:37:16 -0400
Coolness.
An all new, low power (110 mW), tuner to baseband, single chip receiver
for HD Radio. I think what makes this significant is not just that HD
Radio can now go portable, but also that it will now be available,
presumably, on the cheap. Just what it will take to make HD Radio
ubiquitous.
The product brief is here:
http://www.siport.com/products/briefs/SP1010PBV01.pdf
Oh! And "wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles," compatible also with
with the Euro DAB and T-DMB schemes, when these are in the upper VHF
bands (no evidence of L Band operation). Not to mention compatible with
analog AM/FM. Even the weather band. What else can anyone ask for?
Curiously, the AM tuner, per se, would be a separate module. The single
chip does not include AM tuning.
Bert
-----------------------------------
HD Radio chip marks SiPort's recovery
Junko Yoshida
(03/10/2009 12:01 AM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=215800740
NEW YORK - SiPort, a fabless chip vendor based in Santa Clara, Calif.,
has re-emerged this week, three months after a horrific tragedy in which
three SiPort executives, including its CEO, were fatally shot by a
former employee.
SiPort is heralding its return to normalcy by rolling out a low-power,
single-chip HD Radio solution, now in mass production at Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. using its 130-nm RF CMOS process
technology.
SiPort's new chip, already certified by iBiquity last August, will allow
consumers to listen to free-over-the-air HD Radio available in more than
1,800 radio stations in the United States.
The IC will be designed into a new generation of MP3 players scheduled
for launch by OEMs in the second half of this year, according to SiPort.
The company's single-chip HD Radio receiver chip is integrated with RF
radio, demodulator, memory and two embedded CPUs " ARC's 32-bit CPU
cores. "It draws only 110 milliwatts," noted Sunder Velamuri, vice
president of marketing at SiPort. "It's ideal for portable media
players, portable navigation devices, and ultimately, mobile handsets,"
he added.
SiPort's approach -- zoomed in on the portable device market -- marks a
sharp contrast to solutions offered by its competitors such as NXP
Semiconductors and Texas Instruments. The competitors' chip sets
typically consume 2 to 2.5 watts, because their focus is on the
automotive market, rather than the power-conscious portable device
market.
Meanwhile, Samsung, SiPort's closest competitor in the portable HD Radio
market, has been already supplying an HD Radio chip set since last year.
But SiPort's single-chip solution consumes only 25 percent of the power
used by the nearest competitor's chip, claimed Velamuri.
Targeting its HD Radio chip for the portable media player market is a
path yet to be trodden by the industry, if not a gamble.
Stephanie Ethier, senior analyst at In-Stat, believes that "HD radio
adoption will take off in automotive first and foremost." She noted that
survey data shows that most Americans listen to radio in their cars more
often than any other setting.
Richard Robinson, principal analyst at iSuppli Corp, agreed. "Currently,
the main growth area (and market) for HD radio is in OEM Automotive and
After market solutions," he said.
Robinson, however, added that the market will grow in areas such as
personal navigation devices and handsets. Scant market predictions on HD
Radio in portable players may be explained, as Robinson said, because
"this [HD Radio in portable devices] is currently either not available
or very early stages of development."
iSuppli, overall, sees the future of HD Radio as "very positive,"
according to Robinson, particularly for two reasons.
HD Radio signal has "the ability to carry sideband data information that
can be used for services such as traffic, news, weather and gas prices,
etc." Although similar 'service' capability is available in FM radio
data radio system, it is "very limited because of low data rate," he
added.
Another important factor is, "HD Radio is free for users," unlike
satellite radio which is a subscription-based service.
In-Stat estimated that approximately 1.5 million units of HD Radio
receivers were shipped in 2008. That number will reach 2.5 million units
in 2009, said In-Stat's Ethier, with the market growing to 8 million
units in 2013.
Aftermath of the tragedy
After the shooting happened in mid-November, SiPort went through a
setback of several months, Velamuri acknowledged.
However, remarkably, SiPort has kept its workforce " 36 employees "
intact. "Nobody at SiPort has left the company," said Velamuri. "It's
been a process of recovery and bonding. We've found a common purpose and
we are a lot closer now."
The story of SiPort's resilience is also a story about Silicon Valley.
"People say that Silicon Valley has no heart, but that's not true," said
Velamuri. He cited an outpouring of support from the industry and
community.
For example, Intel Corp., one of SiPort's backers, sent out its senior
human resources people to SiPort right after the tragedy, offering grief
counseling to SiPort employees, while engaged in a daily conference call
with SiPort, Velamuri said.
The landlord also found a new property, allowed the SiPort move to the
new facility right away, without forcing them to break the lease which
SiPort had signed just before the tragedy. Similarly, police were very
helpful, said Velamuri.
After the tragedy, Aiman Kabakibo, the company founder, has stepped in
to head up SiPort.
All materials on this site Copyright (c) 2009 TechInsights, a Division
of United Business Media LLC. All rights reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
