[opendtv] All-standards DTT in notebooks
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 16:31:00 -0400
Kind of cool. These guys use their all-standards tuner, which have been
available for some time now, and then their own all-standards software
demod. The demod runs on the notebook's CPU.
I'm not sure I get the comparison with older vintage tuner/demod
combinations, since the new chips they are talking about are only for
the tuner function, not the demod. They say that some OEMs want to build
in global DTT and radio in their notebooks starting 2009.
Bert
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Startup turns on global TV for notebooks
Rick Merritt
(05/28/2008 12:01 AM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208400367
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Startup Mirics Semiconductor is gearing up two chips
aimed at letting a notebook computer receive and playback any digital
terrestrial TV or radio signal. FlexiTV includes a wide multiband
receiver chip along with demodulation software that runs on a host x86
processor.
By driving the complex demodulation work to the host, Mirics believes it
can deliver by the end of the year a mini-PCI Express card for a $5 bill
of materials that could tune into a broad range of services from AM
radio to Europe's terrestrial digital TV stations. That could drive
adoption of TV tuners to as much as 30 percent of the estimated 160
million notebooks shipping next year, up from just a percent or two
currently using such cards, the company claimed.
"We can support any TV or radio standard with this chip set, but
implementing playback in software will consume more power," said Simon
Atkinson, chief executive of Mirics (Fleet, UK).
Specifically, tuning in a high resolution, high bit-rate TV signal such
as Europe's DVB-T standard or ATSC in the US could consume up to 60
percent of the processing power of a 2.2 GHz Intel Core Duo processor.
Lower resolution and bit-rate standards such as Japan's ISDB-T and
Korea's T-DMB would take less than 20 percent of the host. Radio
playback requires only a few percent of the host.
The Mirics multiband RF chip can receive signals ranging from 150 KHz AM
radio to 1.9 GHz DVB-T. It is paired with a chip that packages the
signals on to a USB 2.0 bus to send to the host for demodulation.
The two Mirics chips consume 70mA when receiving video streams. They can
be packaged in a single 5x5mm BGA or on a USB dongle or miniPCI card and
will be in production in the fall.
Currently, Mirics has demodulation software in beta test for a handful
of radio and TV standards including AM, FM, DAB, DVB-T and T-DMB. It
expects to release in 2009 software for ATSC, ISDB-T and possibly the
DTMB standard being adopted in China.
By contrast some early ATSC tuner/demodulator combinations consume as
much as 1W. DVB-T combos use about a third that power, Atkinson said.
The chips themselves, available from a wide array of vendors, cost
nearly as much as the FlexiTV card and are hardwired for receiving just
one or two standard signals.
"A number of top tier OEMs want to embedded TV in notebooks starting on
2009 with mini-cards," said Atkinson, claiming Hewlett-Packard and Sony
are among them. "Ideally they want to have a global solution," he added.
A consumer notebook engineer from one top tier OEM said the company is
making an increasing number of its notebooks TV capable. However he said
the attach rate for TV reception for the next couple years is likely
much smaller than 30 percent of notebooks, and mainly focused on Europe.
The architect was not familiar with Mirics. However, he was skeptical a
$5 card would make a significant difference in uptake. "People also
talked about the impact of a $5 Bluetooth chip, but ten years later we
are just getting going with that technology," he said.
The Mirics solution's heavy use of the CPU also raised questions. "If
you are cranking a Core 2 Duo at 60 percent, you are doing a lot of
things counter-intuitive for a notebook," he said.
FlexiTV is based on the MSi001 RF receiver Mirics announced in July
2006, aimed at the cellphone market. The chip uses software configurable
switches between its internal blocks to optimize operation of its
frequency synthesizers, filters and other components for a given signal.
The chip supports a range of single- and dual-conversion heterodyne and
direct conversion radios.
The RF chip is beginning to ship in production for cellphones, paired
with a variety of third-party hardware demodulators.
"The [mobile TV] market has taken a while to mature," said Atkinson.
"People underestimated the challenges of building out new infrastructure
and generating demand for subscription mobile TV services.
"By focusing on digital terrestrial services we can now aim at sectors
where there is an infrastructure and content already available," he
added.
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United Business Media LLC. All rights reserved.
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