Auvitek Expands Line of DTMB Receiver ICs With 5 New Products

Auvitek Expands Line of DTMB Receiver ICs With 5 New Products, to Offer the Widest Range of GB20600-2006 Compliant Demodulator Solutions

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Building on the successful 2008 launch of its flagship AU8822 DTMB+PAL channel decoder, Auvitek today announced the introduction of 5 new ICs to expand its offerings to address all segments of the China terrestrial broadcast receiver market. With the addition of the AU8800, AU8810, AU8820, AU8824, and AU8828 parts to its DTMB product family, Auvitek now offers the broadest range of parts tailored to minimize cost and system BoM in specific DTMB applications, whilst continuing to deliver performance in excess of the standard and outstanding reception of all digital and analogue TV broadcast signals.

The China DTMB standard (aka GB20600-2006) employs a more technically advanced and complex broadcast modulation scheme than other regions of the world to deliver DTV signals to the public, and offers broadcasters a large number of modes with which to tailor the modulation scheme to match regional requirements. This flexibility effectively prevents a one-size-fits-all channel demodulator from being the most cost effective solution. With the expansion of its DTMB line-up, Auvitek solves this problem by offering a range of devices to match individual broadcaster’s needs. “With Auvitek’s experience in consistently delivering the best cost to performance solutions in the ATSC market, we were able to deliver a scalable and modular architecture that enables us to provide a family of solutions at the right cost points for the different market segments,” said Pete Birch, Auvitek’s President and CEO. “The AU88xx family outperforms the existing solutions, yet is cost effective enough to help the DTMB market to achieve the rapid growth that will aid China’s transition from analog to digital TV broadcast.”

The total market opportunity for DTMB (Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast) digital TV receivers in China is estimated to be approximately 250 million units over the next 5 years, with over 40 million new TV sets currently sold each year in China and a roughly 470 million installed TV base. In addition, over 65% of the house-holds, particularly in rural areas, rely solely on terrestrial over-the-air broadcasts. With the analog-to-digital transition set for 2015 in China, the DTMB market is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 70% per year representing a US dollar value of over $1.5 billion by 2013.

The AU88xx solution builds on Auvitek’s acclaimed FADE™ (Fully Adaptive Demodulation and Equalization) architecture and expands the support to include the reception of both single-carrier and multi-carrier digital TV broadcast including all 330 modes of operation specified in the GB20600-2006 standard. All parts in the AU88xx family of products include fully integrated DRAM and ADC’s. The AU8800 supports only multi-carrier (e.g. Hong Kong), and the AU8810 offers single-carrier only (e.g. Shanghai) support, while the AU8820 provides both single and multi-carrier DTV demodulation. The AU8822 is a full hybrid solution supporting not only single and multi-carrier but also legacy analog broadcasts such as PAL and integrates a multi-standard TV video decoder and Audio processor. The AU8824 and AU8828 expand on the above two chipsets to include support for DVB-C (the china cable standard).

The AU88xx family of solutions is all pin compatible and offered in an 80-pin LQFP package. The AU88xx family is targeted at the DTMB Digital Television sets, STBs, A/V consumer electronics, Portable, Hand-helds and the Desktop and Laptop PC market segments.

Auvitek has developed a range of evaluation kits for the AU88xx that support the different video decoding formats used in China such as MPEG2, H.264 and AVS. The software modules provided with the evaluation kits offer a simple and intuitive interface to control the device, and incorporate drivers for embedded applications or the Windows and Linux operating environments. The AU88xx evaluation kits are available with a number of different can and silicon tuners options, each comprising a complete DTMB front-end receiver solution.