1998-03-20 , ESC-9858

Reference design to support Intel's Intercast technology worldwide

Philips Semiconductors, the largest European semiconductor company, has announced today a powerful and cost effective reference design that will help manufacturers develop PC add-in boards to decode both PAL and NTSC Intercast TV broadcasts for the growing worldwide market. The Intercast technology was devised by Intel and has already taken off in a big way in the US with broadcasters such as CNN and NBC. Europe is rapidly catching up with broadcasters such as ZDF of Germany, for example, providing a twenty four-hour per day service of in-depth information on its broadcast programs, which is transmitted to customers free of charge.

"Teletext has shown just how useful fast access to up-to-date information can be," explained Günther Dengel, Managing Director of Consumer Systems at Philips Semiconductors, "while Internet and the World Wide Web stand for interactivity and an almost infinite amount of data. Television broadcasters have now enhanced the teletext concept so that web-like pages can be transmitted with normal TV signals in the vertical blanking interval and be linked to the World Wide Web. Intercast technology brings together the best of the features of Internet and Television, and creates a medium that combines the formerly conflicting characteristics of moving images, sound and written pages. And, it adds the ability to interact with the sender."

Philips Semiconductors has extended the existing software for its demo board, which already supports NTSC Intercast broadcast, so that it is now possible to decode and display PAL Intercast content. The demo kit consists of a PCI-based video capture board, an on-board tuner and software to take the TV signals, and extract the Intercast content for display on a PC.

Philips Semiconductors is committed to support the Intercast technology and other emerging standards, both now and in the future. To ensure this, Philips Semiconductors works closely together with the leading companies in the PC industry. The board will be demonstrated at this year's CeBIT.

Technical information
The DPCT7146 demo board contains a PCI video/audio capture card with integrated tuner and an extensive range of control, debugger and application software. The card is based on Philips Semiconductors' state-of-the-art  SAA7146A multimedia audio/video PCI controller IC, which is widely used by manufacturers of video capture boards. The SAA7146A includes a high performance video scaler and an expansion interface.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Philips Electronics NV, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the ninth largest semiconductor supplier in the world. 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 regional customer application labs.

See also this earlier press release. For further information about  Intel's Intercast (in German) or in  English.

PAL = Phase Alternate Line: European colour TV system with the exception of France which uses SECAM
NTSC = National Television Standards Committee: the colour TV system used in North America