Samsung to deploy Sigma's new STB chip

SEOUL, S.KOREA: Samsung Electronics range of STBs will be the launch customer for Sigma Design's second generation media processor SoC, christened SMT 8654. The Samsung STB range, to be targeted at users in Europe, supports Microsoft's Mediaroom client. The Sigma 8654 is tipped to boast of 50 per cent more processing power, lower cost, and an enhanced set of peripherals.

The Californina-based Sigma's 8654 has come with all qualities of the SMP8634, which had been the company’s first design targeting STBs that run the Microsoft IPTV client.

According to Ken Lowe, vice president of strategic marketing, Sigma Designs, the company is excited to be working together with Samsung. “The SMP8654 features a 500-Mhz Mips host CPU, a second processor called the IPU for offloading real-time tasks, and a third processor dedicated to managing security functions, it was pointed out. Te new chip incorporates decoder engines that offer support to high definition video decoding of H.264 (MPEG-4 part 10), Windows Media Video 9, VC-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (part 2), the new AVS standard, and can support up to 16 independent streams on screen in different formats, company officials added.

This apart, Sigma has also joined hands with another California-based company MaxLinear Inc to develop a highly integrated hybrid DVB-T IPTV set-top-box reference design. MaxLinear is a fabless semiconductor company developing all-CMOS RF and mixed-signal ICs for consumer markets