Gennum Delivers HDMI Over Cat-X Cables Utilizing Popular ActiveConnect™ Solutions

Enables Industry's Longest Reach HDMI over Cat 5e and Cat 6 Cables for 1080p and 1080p 12-bit Deep Color [The following is a release from Gennum]

September 15, 2008

Further expanding its popular HDMI connectivity solutions portfolio, Gennum Corporation (TSX: GND) has extended its ActiveConnect product family to support low-cost Category 5 enhanced (Cat 5e) and Category 6 (Cat 6) cables. Featuring HDMI 1.3 support, Gennum's ActiveConnect semiconductor-based solution delivers high rate multimedia performance over Cat-X cables up to 250 feet. Ideal for professional A/V applications and custom installations of home theater systems, the new ActiveConnect solution can deliver 1080p today and supports 1080p 12-bit Deep Color (6.75Gbps), enabling system designers and installers to "future-proof" their designs. "As the industry moves to higher resolutions and richer content, cabling remains a bottleneck for many installations because of price and reduced performance at long lengths," said Vijay Sharma, Director of Marketing, A/V Connectivity, of Gennum. "By providing our customers the ability to deliver an industry standard cable—such as Cat 5e—that can ensure 1080p performance up to 250 feet, ActiveConnect is providing a solution that can be implemented easily and affordably. Having established full HDMI functionality with our previous ActiveConnect solutions for coaxial and thin HDMI cabling, customers are assured of performance and signal integrity when using the new ActiveConnect Cat-X solution in their applications." Gennum will be showcasing its new solution at the CEDIA Expo with a demonstration of a Blu-ray player connected to an HDTV via 200 feet of Cat 6 cable. Gennum's ActiveConnect solution is providing the connectivity functionality, delivering a high performance 1080p 12-bit Deep Color, plug and play solution that can automatically compensate for different cable lengths. According to market analyst firm In-Stat, HDMI device shipments are increasing rapidly, with 229 million expected to ship in 2008. "HDMI's success continues to be enormous and we expect to see the market numbers increase as set-top boxes, digital TVs and professional video equipment continue to ship with HDMI," said Brian O'Rourke, principal analyst, Multimedia Group, at In-Stat. "Solutions that can provide long reach connectivity and deliver full-rate HDMI 1.3 between these devices are of significant interest to custom installers, A/V professionals and consumers alike, so that cabling becomes a non-issue in their various multimedia configurations." ActiveConnect Delivers Longest Reach and Highest Performance HDMI Over Cat-X Cables, Enables Plug and Play Design Gennum's ActiveConnect solutions are comprised of the advanced mixed-signal semiconductor transmit and receive products that are embedded in the cable end points. The new solutions for Cat-X cables leverage the company's proven GV8500 and GV8501, transmit and receive chipsets, to enable full rate HDMI transmission. A new reference kit has been developed that will enable manufacturers to easily integrate the ActiveConnect solution in to their designs. A key benefit of this solution is that it is auto-adaptive, eliminating the need to manually adjust settings for different cable lengths and performance, allowing for easy, plug and play installations. Today's announcement further extends the ActiveConnect line, which also includes solutions for enabling cable manufacturers to attain the longest reach coaxial and thin HDMI cables, up to 300 and 65 feet, respectively. Targeting high-rate HDMI applications, the ActiveConnect solutions enable consumer, business and industrial applications to stream HDMI content, via low-cost cable, at unmatched distances. Just as important, the new ActiveConnect Cat-X solution, like the entire ActiveConnect product family, supports current and legacy versions of HDMI, including 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3, enabling backward compatibility with existing equipment. Primarily targeted at broadcast studios and professional applications, the initial ActiveConnect solution for coaxial applications has seen broad adoption among manufacturers including Gefen, Liberty Cable Products, Canare, Kramer Electronics and Orbital Development. Gennum's ActiveConnect solution for thin HDMI cables announced in June 2008, the GV8502, will enable cable manufacturers to deliver consumer-grade products as early as 4Q2008. ActiveConnect Cat-X Reference Design Kit Available A complete ActiveConnect Cat-X reference design is available for cable manufacturers that includes demonstration transmit/receive units and design collateral and supports design of Cat 5e and Cat 6 cables. The kit can be leveraged to design extenders, dongles, and wall-plates capable of supporting the full suite of HDMI 1.3 features and functions such as High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) for secure content protection. The ActiveConnect reference design kit will be available in October. Volume pricing for the ActiveConnect GV8500/GV8501 silicon solution is expected to be $8.00 per unit. More information can be found at http://www.gennum.com/activeconnect.

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