Broadcom Demonstrates Industry's First Single-Chip High Definition Set-Top Box Solution With China AVS Support

Friday, March 21st, 2008
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65 Nanometer HD AVS System-on-a-Chip Solution on Display at this Week’s CCBN Conference

BEIJING — CCBN 2008 — Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that it is the first company to demonstrate single-chip high definition (HD) audio video coding standard (AVS) for digital set-top box (STB) applications. The highly integrated system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution will enable set-top box manufacturers to rapidly design and deploy HD boxes compliant with China’s new AVS specification. The new Broadcom® AVS-compliant high definition STB SoC will be demonstrated at this week’s China Content Broadcasting Network (CCBN) Conference in Booth #3501.

AVS was approved as a Chinese national standard in March 2006 and is now being implemented in IPTV trials by China Netcom, a leading broadband communications and fixed-line telecommunications operator in China. China Netcom decided to use AVS in its IPTV roll-outs instead of MPEG-4 or H.264/AVC and is planning to deploy 300,000 AVS-based IP set-top boxes in the Dalian, Liaoning province this year. AVS is also supported by the Ministry of Information Industry in China, who is encouraging companies to make AVS a required part of the STB specification.

“Broadcom is leading the market in supporting AVS technology and is paving the way to make high definition TV a reality in China,” said Gao Wen, Principal Scientist of China Netcom.

The AVS specification provides one of the most comprehensive standardization solutions for the Chinese digital video and audio industry because it addresses system level content transport, video/audio coding formats and media copyright management. It also provides video coding efficiency that is 2 to 3 times more efficient than MPEG-2 (and equivalent to H.264).

To address China’s AVS market opportunity, Broadcom’s highly integrated BCM7405 multi-format, high definition video/audio SoC solution provides AVS support and advanced capabilities such as networked personal video recording (PVR) with high-performance media server functionality. Additional system benefits include support for low cost, high-speed DDR2 and NAND flash technologies.

The BCM7405 has been selected by Sunniwell, a leading service provider of IP set-top box solutions, for its S-Box7500 HD set-top box. The high performance S-Box7500 supports digital video formats including AVS, H.264 and VC-1, advanced applications such as PVR and VoIP, and support for both IPTV and broadcast DVB applications.

“As a major STB manufacturer and long term customer of Broadcom, we are pleased to continue working with them to deliver an advanced, high definition AVS IP set-top box solution for the Chinese market,” said Jiang Wen, CEO and General Manager of Sunniwell. “Utilizing Broadcom’s BCM7405 within the S-Box7500 will enable end users to continue to enjoy high quality digital video content without inconvenience as the industry transitions to this new standard.”

The BCM7405 is designed in a 65 nanometer (nm) CMOS process that provides significant benefits over previous geometries by enabling lower power consumption, higher CPU and memory performance, and higher levels of integration. Furthermore, support for high-speed DDR2 and NAND flash memory technologies will enable equipment manufacturers to significantly reduce bill of materials (BOM) costs.

“Our set-top box demonstration at CCBN is the first of its kind to show high definition AVS support and underlines our strong commitment to China and the business opportunities it presents,” said Dan Marotta, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom’s Broadband Communications Group. “The BCM7405 anticipates the future needs of our customers and service providers as the industry transitions to support this new Chinese video/audio standard.”

AVS is championed by the AVS Industry Alliance (AVSA), an organization established to foster the development of the new audio and video coding standard through industry collaboration and technological advancement. Since its inception in 2002, AVSA has been supported by academic societies, governmental agencies and industry leaders.

“Broadcom’s BCM7405 chip provides a ready-to-deploy, high definition set-top box solution that will greatly accelerate the commercialization and adoption of AVS,” said Zhang Weimin, the Secretary General of the AVS Alliance.

Technical Information

The BCM7405 is a high performance, high definition, cable, satellite, IPTV and terrestrial set-top box system-on-chip solution with DVR capabilities. It combines a fast 1100-DMIPS MIPS32®/MIPS16e™-class CPU, high-speed graphics processing (including video scaling and motion adaptive de-interlacing), a very flexible data transport processor, an MPEG-4/VC-1/MPEG-2/AVS-compliant video decoder, a programmable audio decoder, six video DACs, stereo high-fidelity audio DACs, dual Fast Ethernet ports (one with an integrated PHY), triple USB 2.0, a PCI 2.3/expansion bus, a high-speed DDR2-800 memory controller, and a peripheral control unit that provides a variety of set-top box control functions.

Designed in a 65nm CMOS process, the BCM7405 offers one of the highest levels of single-chip system performance available for STB applications. Key features include:

  • HD and SD simultaneous decode
  • Very high performance graphics scaling, blitting and blending
  • PC client usage modes to support PC-oriented content viewing on televisions
  • Standby modes that offer equipment vendors significant flexibility in configuring various low power standby modes of operation
  • An integrated and highly developed security processor that supports real-time encryption and decryption for advanced conditional access and digital rights management (DRM).

Availability and Pricing

The BCM7405 digital video/audio set-top box SoC is now sampling to early access customers. Pricing is available upon request to set-top box manufacturers.