STMicroelectronics Receives EuroDOCSIS 2.0 Certification for Set-top Box Reference Design
(Business News & Technology News, 23 Dec 2009)
STMicroelectronics (ST) has achieved EuroDOCSIS 2.0 certification for its production-ready reference design for feature-rich cable set-top boxes (STBs) using the company’s STi7141 system-on-chip. As the first to achieve this single-chip mandatory certification for cable high-definition STBs supporting Internet connection, ST has moved to dramatically shorten time-to-market for STB vendors by streamlining acceptance testing for new products that are based on ST reference designs.
The chip at the heart of this reference design, the STi7141, was launched in January 2009. Its arrival made ST the first to integrate a DOCSIS cable modem and HDTV MPEG4 decoder, creating a single chip supporting HDTV, interactive services, broadband Internet and Digital Video Recorder (DVR) functions such as pausing live TV.
The STi7141 supports the latest HD broadcast standards including MPEG4/H.264/VC1 decoding. The DOCSIS/EuroDOCSIS 2.0 cable modem enables always-on Internet connection and supports IP-based interactive TV and Internet telephone services. The STi7141 is also ready for DOCSIS 3.0 channel bonding, which will allow broadband download speeds up to 120Mbps. Support for HDMI, USB, eSATA and Ethernet interconnects is also built in.
The STB reference design, with supporting sample software, is available directly from STMicroelectronics to customers with an NDA. The STi7141 is in full production, in a 35x35mm PBGA package, with pricing available on application.