Toshiba Spells Out Reference Platform Strategy for Digital TV Applications, Announces Product Family for Low-End and Mid-Range TVs

Toshiba Spells Out Reference Platform Strategy for Digital TV Applications, Announces Product Family for Low-End and Mid-Range TVs

Highly Integrated TC90400XBG/FG SoCs Take Aim at Digital TV Applications With Support for Worldwide TV Standards

SAN JOSE, Calif., Embedded Systems Conference, April 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC)* today disclosed its reference platform strategy for support of digital TV (DTV) applications along with a portfolio of products that will include high-, mid- and low-end system-on-a-chip (SoC) ICs ranging in performance, levels of integration and price. The company also announced the availability of the first two members of a family of products to serve the low-end and mid-range market. Designated TC90400XBG and TC90400FG, the devices are targeted at digital TV applications and are highly integrated SoC solutions with comprehensive support for worldwide TV standards. Systems based on TC90400XBG also support hard-disk drive applications. TAEC will be demonstrating the SoCs in booth #1510 at the Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley 2006 here this week.

"Our digital TV rollout is a continuation of our overarching strategy to offer complete platform solutions for focused segments," said Shardul Kazi, vice president of the ASSP Business Unit at TAEC. "To reduce time to market for our consumer electronics customers, we support all aspects of hardware and software development, including reference designs, drivers and firmware, operating systems, ATSC middleware, and application and user interface development tools. Our customers face a highly competitive market and a streamlined design process is essential for their success." Mr. Kazi noted that a driving force in this market is the Congressional mandate that U.S. broadcast television service completely convert to digital terrestrial transmission by 2009.

"Our TC90400XBG and TC90400FG single-chip ICs are highly integrated, cost-effective SoC solutions for the next generation of digital TVs and set-top boxes and can support hard-disk drive and DVD implementations," Mr. Kazi continued. "Suitable for both terrestrial- and pay-TV environments, they provide a common platform for U.S., European and Japanese standards. We offer a complete hardware evaluation platform as well as application-specific modules based on the TC90400 family to help our customers reduce product development time significantly and get a jump on competition."

Summary of Digital TV Offering

Toshiba's digital TV product portfolio is comprised of two families of highly integrated SoCs that support high-end to low-end digital TV applications. Toshiba currently offers the TC81240A chip (high-definition stream to high-definition display) for high-end DTV applications; this device is in mass production now. The SoC family (high-definition stream to half horizontal resolution or standard-definition display) that TAEC launched today serves mid- to low-end DTV applications. Additional products are in development to round out both families and are expected to be introduced over the next 12 to 18 months. Toshiba supports all hardware and software development requirements with reference designs, drivers and firmware, operating systems, ATSC middleware, and application and user interface development tools. Currently available for rapid product development are the following:

- Hardware: TC81240A global digital TV reference system, TC90400 global
digital TV reference system, TC90400 LCD digital TV reference system
and TC90400 digital-to-analog TV converter module
- System software: Linux(R) operating system port support as well as
driver and firmware for each chip
- Middleware: ATSC, DVB and ARIB middleware that supports worldwide TV
standards
- Application development tools and an electronics programming guide

Summary of the TC90400XBG and TC90400FG Single-Chip Solutions

TC90400XBG and TC90400FG are highly integrated SoCs for digital TV that incorporate a high-performance 64-bit MIPS-based(TM) RISC host processor and three highly optimized DSP processors for compute-intensive multimedia tasks. They support worldwide TV standards, including ATSC, DVB and ARIB. The SoCs are capable of decoding multiple standard-definition streams or single high-definition streams and can display content in standard-definition resolution (720 x 480) or high-definition resolution (up to 960 x 1080 or up to 1080i resolution). Both chips can output standard 480i analog output to support VCRs or to feed CRT TV to display digital transmission. They support a unified 16-bit DDR memory system as well as a NAND and NOR flash memory controller to reduce overall system cost.

Highlights of the TC90400XBG/FG SoCs include the following features common to both chips:

- A 180MHz TX49/L3 64-bit MIPS RISC core with 8KB instruction cache and
8KB data cache, a unified memory system, a DDR SDRAM controller plus
NAND and NOR flash memory support
- A transport stream processor that is fully compliant to ATSC, ARIB and
DVB standards. It provides simultaneous de-multiplexing of up to three
streams, has two TS inputs, supports hard-disk drive recording or
playback, and has a descrambler for Multi2, DES/TDES, DVB and AES
- A video decoder for standard-definition decoding. It supports either
single or dual MPEG-2 (MP@ML and MP@SL) decoding and MPEG-1 decoding.
It also offers both fixed and variable bit rate up to 15Mbits/sec, has
trick-mode support for hard-disk drive playback and single I-frame
decoding.
- A video decoder for high-definition decoding. It supports MPEG-2
decoding for MP@HL for the ATSC and BS-Digital standards.
High-definition decoding can be displayed in half horizontal resolution
up to 960 x 1080 and is 720p or 1080i compliant. It also has
high-definition to standard-definition down-conversion for display in
standard-definition resolution.
- Built-in audio processor with MPEG-audio, Dolby AC-3 and AAC decoding.
It provides multi-stream decoding for up to three streams and audio
post-processing with several firmware options.
- A graphics engine with two planes for YUV/graphics, video scaling from
six to 1/16, alpha blending, and progressive scan with I/P conversion
through line-interpolation.
- Provide a wide range of interfaces and peripherals
- Has power-down and standby operations
- Packaging: TC90400XBG is housed in a 272-pin PBGA package while
TC90400FG is offered in a 208-pin QFP package
- Supports MontaVista(R) Linux from MontaVista Software, Inc.

Pricing and Availability

Samples of TC90400XBG and TC90400FG are currently available and the chips are in volume production. Pricing ranges from $10.00 to $18.00 in 100,000-piece quantities (based on a one-year volume commitment).

Reference boards now available include the TC90400 global digital TV reference system, TC90400 LCD digital TV reference system and TC90400 digital-to-analog TV converter module.

For a product brief, please visit: http://www.toshiba.com/taec/components/Generic/mpu_prodbriefs.jsp

*About TAEC

Combining quality and flexibility with design engineering expertise, TAEC brings a breadth of advanced, next-generation technologies to its customers. This broad offering includes memory and flash memory-based storage solutions, a broad range of discrete devices, displays, medical tubes, ASICs, custom SOCs, microprocessors, microcontrollers and wireless components for the computing, wireless, networking, automotive and digital consumer markets.

TAEC is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp. (Toshiba), Japan's second largest semiconductor manufacturer and the world's ninth largest integrated manufacturer of electric and electronic equipment. In almost 130 years of operation, Toshiba has recorded numerous firsts and made many valuable contributions to technology and society. For additional company and product information, please visit TAEC's website at chips.toshiba.com. For technical inquiries, please e-mail Tech.Questions@taec.toshiba.com.

Information in this press release, including product pricing and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current and believed to be accurate on the date of the announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice. Technical and application information contained here is subject to the most recent applicable Toshiba product specifications. In developing designs, please ensure that Toshiba products are used within specified operating ranges as set forth in the most recent Toshiba product specifications and the information set forth in Toshiba's "Handling Guide for Semiconductor Devices," or "Toshiba Semiconductor Reliability Handbook." This information is available at www.chips.toshiba.com, or from your TAEC representative.

All trademarks and tradenames used herein are the properties of their respective holders.

Source: Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.

CONTACT: Judy Kahn, +1-650-948-8881, judith.kahn@comcast.net, for
Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.; or Deborah Chalmers of Toshiba
America Electronic Components, Inc., +1-408-526-2454,
deborah.chalmers@taec.toshiba.com

Web site: http://www.chips.toshiba.com/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/638602.html

NOTE TO EDITORS: TAEC reader inquiries please publish: Tech.Questions@taec.toshiba.com.

-------
Profile: intent