1998-03-18 , E/IC-856/54

Combined with a single 4-Mbit industry standard DRAM, the  SAA5700 Chinese Character System Teletext (CCST) Decoder from Philips Semiconductors stores as many as 400 pages of Chinese character Teletext: almost 20 times more than was previously possible. It also features Fastext capabilities and support for the proposed new 32-colour enhancements to the CCST standard. Televisions equipped with the SAA5700 give users faster access to an increasing number of Teletext pages and provide high reliability decoding under adverse signal conditions for which Philips Semiconductors is famous.

"With the rapid expansion of national and regional CCST broadcasting in China, sales of Teletext and Fastext compatible TVs are set for explosive growth," said product marketing manager Mike Rose. "With advanced products such as the SAA5700, Philips Semiconductors will build on its reputation as the world leader in Teletext decoding to become the number one supplier in this market," he added.

Teletext pages are captured in background mode and stored in an external DRAM that can range in size from 256K x 4 bits to 4M x 4-bits. Alternatively, the SAA5700 can support two industry-standard 1M x 4-bit DRAMs by adding an external decoder/demultiplexer chip. In order to cope with the large number of Chinese characters, it operates with a standard external character ROM. In addition to using the Chinese character set to display Teletext pages, the SAA5700 can also display these characters in the Fastext prompt row, allowing the entire screen to be tailored for local language viewing. Reduced contrast video behind subtitles and Teletext boxes improves readability.

To simplify integration of the SAA5700 into existing and future TV architectures, the new decoder has both stand-alone and scan-locked synchronization modes. Its I²C-bus interface and standard SAFARI command set also help to ease the design-in process.

The SAA5700, which was developed by Philips Semiconductors' Teletext IC design group in Southampton, UK, is packaged in a space-saving 64-lead plastic quad flat-pack. It costs in the region of US$ 12 per piece in high volume and is available for volume delivery now.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Philips Electronics NV, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the ninth largest semiconductor supplier in the world and the number one supplier of DECT communication ICs. Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by systems labs.