BroadcomÆ Announces Family Of Advanced Interactive TV Video Decoder Chips For Next Generation Set-Top Boxes

Motorola Broadband Qualifies Broadcom's TV Video Decoder Chip For Its Advanced DCT-5000 Interactive Set-Top Terminals

14-Dec-00

BroadcomÆ Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), the leading provider of integrated circuits enabling broadband communications, broadened its advanced high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) interactive television set-top box product offerings with the announcement of a new family of interactive TV video decoder chips. Broadcom will supply to Motorola a field-proven, backend interactive TV decoder chip with more integrated features, higher flexibility and improved price/performance. New features and capabilities include Personal Video Recording (PVR) capability for supporting VCR-like functions, a dual SDTV/HDTV video interface for watch and record operation, interface capability to Broadcom's Digital Video Interface (DVI) transmitter chip for copyright protection of HDTV programming, and a high-performance 3D graphics engine for gaming and acceleration of 3D Internet content. ""Motorola has qualified Broadcom's BCM7030 TV video decoder chip for use in our most advanced DCT-5000 interactive set-top terminals,"" said Dave Robinson, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Motorola's Digital Network System business unit. ""Broadcom's feature-rich decoder chip provides us with the cost-performance benefits we need to continue our worldwide leadership position in developing interactive set-tops with a broad range of capabilities, including dual-channel decode, picture-in-picture, high definition TV, PVR and accelerated 3D imaging."" ""Our new family of products will help accelerate the transition from standard broadcast to two-way interactive 2D and 3D programming,"" said Tim Lindenfelser, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Broadband Communications Business Unit. ""Receiving a commitment from the industry leader, Motorola, further solidifies our position in this market."" The Interactive TV Video Decoder family consists of four devices - the Broadcom BCM7020, BCM7030, BCM7021 and BCM7031. Each of these chips takes advantage of the field-proven features and benefits of the BCM7020, which include support for dual decode of MPEG-2 video for picture-in-picture (PIP) and watch and record (W&R) functions, DolbyÆ Digital and MPEG audio, studio-quality 2D text and graphics for SDTV and HDTV television displays, and support for analog TV channels. The product family gives set-top box developers many choices in developing the correct architecture for various price/performance points. The BCM7021 and BCM7031, which are PCI client devices, allow for maximum system performance, when utilized in a high definition environment, while the unified memory architecture of the BCM7020 and BCM7030 allows for the lowest system cost. Additionally, Broadcom designed the products as pairs - the BCM7020/BCM7030 and the BCM7021/BCM7031. The chips in each pair have the same pin out assignments and features, except for the 3D capability found in the BCM7030 and BCM7031. This compatibility enables set-top box manufacturers to easily interchange the BCM7020 with BCM7030 and the BCM7021 with BCM7031 to implement 3D in lieu of 2D designs.The chip's PVR capability enables manufacturers to develop set-top boxes that allow users to record television programs, create special viewing preferences and control live TV programming with pause, rewind, slow motion and instant replay. The chips support dual independent PVR functionality for two record and two playback streams simultaneously to a hard disk drive. This coincides with the dual nature of the video decode function, which supports PIP and W&R applications that can now be extended to PVR capability. The chips seamlessly interface to the VisionTechô Kfir-2ô MPEG-2 encoder to support the needs of analog channels and to give the consumer a consistent user interface independent of whether a channel is digital or analog. The BCM7030 and BCM7031 enable for the first time true multi-player PC/game-console 3D experience in an interactive set-top box. Using patented image composition techniques, the BCM7030 and BCM7031 render true color-quality images that visibly surpass the capabilities of traditional 3D gaming devices. Additionally, the BCM7030 and BCM7031 reduce system cost and simplify set-top box design through the use of patented memory bandwidth reduction techniques. The BCM7030 and BCM7031 require one-third the memory bandwidth of competing 3D products and are thereby able to share memory resources with other set-top box functions over a simple 64-bit memory interface. Performance is not compromised, as the BCM7030 and BCM7031 demonstrate in frame rate performance equal to or greater than that of expensive PC-based advanced graphics port (AGP)/128-bit memory solutions. The BCM7030 and BCM7031 also offer a full range of 3D accelerated features, such as live video texture mapping and per-pixel alpha blending. The BCM7021 and BCM7031 also interface to Broadcom's DVI transmitter chip. This interface enables the secure delivery of digital high definition content to a HDTV. DVI satisfies the requirements of the Motion Picture Association of America for secure transmission of high definition content. To ease system designs, Broadcom has developed the BCM93730 Advanced Set-Top Box Development Platform, which incorporates the BCM3250 (dual cable TV/DOCSIS front-end chip), the BCM7030, a high-performance MIPS microprocessor and all the necessary peripherals in an advanced set-top box. The platform also includes the VisionTech Kfir-2 MPEG-2 encoder for analog PVR support. The BCM7020, BCM7030, BCM7021 and BCM7031 are available and are each packaged in a 420-pin TBGA. Pricing for each product is $50 in 10,000 quantities. For more information about Broadcom, visit www.broadcom.com.

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