1999-05-17 , E/IC-1058/54
Product News From Philips Semiconductors

Philips Semiconductors, Europe's leading semiconductor company, today announced its new generation  SAA7219 MPEG2 transport RISC processor, for processing compressed audio, video and data streams in set-top box applications. Drawing on the company's expertise in advanced RISC processing and based on the acknowledged MIPS® cores, this chip is the fastest integrated device of its kind on the market. The SAA7219 effectively more than doubles the speed of its predecessor, offering end users much quicker response times, faster on-screen graphics rendering and support for a software modem.

The SAA7219 is also the first to offer a 'watch and record' feature. This allows OEMs to build digital receivers which can process two channels on the same multiplex stream using a single MPEG transport chip, so end users can watch one channel while simultaneously recording another through the  IEEE1394 interface. This new feature is a major step towards the full 'watch and record' capability available in today's analog systems.

Designed for the consumer digital receiver market, the SAA7219 is incorporated into Philips Semiconductors' STB5860, the latest in a series of integrated hardware and software reference designs for STBs and called the  STB Concept (announced two years ago).

"In an extremely competitive market where product life cycles are as low as six months, our hardware/software STB reference designs guarantee short times-to-market," explained Rob Groen, international product marketing manager for the Philips Semiconductors' STB Concept in Caen, France, where the SAA7219 was designed. "As a sophisticated MIPS-based transport MPEG2 source decoder, the SAA7219 is a clear demonstration of our commitment to providing a smooth upgrade path from existing designs, as we continue to provide ever higher integration and flexibility in STB platforms."

The SAA7219 features a Philips Semiconductors' 32-bit PR3930 MIPS CPU and retains all the DVB set-top box and digital TV controller task functionality of the chip it replaces. It offers MIPS16 code compression of up to 40 % compared to the original 32-bit code, reducing system memory requirements and hence costs.

These major performance enhancements over previous generations have been achieved thanks to increased cache size (4 K/8 K), double CPU speed (81 MHz) and a true 32-bit architecture achieving 162 Mbytes/s peak SDRAM transfer rate. Thanks to these improvements, better graphics and software functions are now possible and compared with its predecessor, the SAA7219 is almost four times faster on graphics performance benchmarks. In addition, the chip includes an integrated Multiply ACcumulate (MAC) unit which can be used, for example, to implement a software modem function. A V22bis soft modem can run in parallel while processing an MPEG stream so eliminating the need for an additional modem chip and keeping end-user costs down.

The SAA7219 hardware and software API offer full support for the industry standard interactive software and operator standards. A low-power sleep mode also allows the chip to sustain set-top box stand-by functionality, anticipating new EU regulations and eliminating the need for a separate controller.

The SAA7219 performs real-time DVB and Multi2* descrambling and stream demultiplexing, with parsing of TS, PES (HW) program and proprietary (SW) streams. Descrambling is in line with the European DVB Super Descrambler Mechanism algorithm. It integrates tightly with the  SAA7215, which performs Audio/Video/Graphics decoding and digital video encoding. Versions of the SAA7215 support various broadcast standards, including a full multistandard device (PAL/NTSC/SECAM), with or without Macrovision copy protection. Low cost systems can be built with SAA7219 and SAA7215 using only 32 Mbits of SDRAM, thanks to the Unified Memory scheme featured in the SAA7215.

All the SAA7219's technological advantages, combined with an attractive cost structure, support Philips Semiconductors' aim of being the supplier of choice for customers and broadcasters in the digital broadcast market.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth 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 systems labs. Additional information on Philips Semiconductors can be obtained by accessing its home page at http://www.semiconductors.philips.com

* Multi2 is the security algorithm standard mandatory for the Japanese market.