Revolutionary Powerline Communications Technology With MIMO Announced by Sigma Designs

Technical Breakthrough Doubles Powerline Communications Performance With G.hn

MILPITAS, CA — Sigma Designs (NASDAQ: SIGM), a leading provider of system-on-chip (SoC) solutions used to deliver entertainment and control throughout the home, today announced it is the first company to deliver MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) features over power line communications chipsets. Adding MIMO functionality will deliver up to twice the performance of existing power line solutions when used in conjunction with the new ITU standard, G.hn.

MIMO delivers a substantial improvement in power line performance because it utilizes all three wires in a power outlet: the phase, the neutral and the ground. By using all three wires, instead of just two, multiple inputs and outputs can be created. This opens up more channels of communications across the home which results in higher guaranteed throughput, increased robustness, better immunity to noise, and improved coverage across outlets. With this new technology, Sigma Designs’ products work much better with surge protectors and across multiple phases — the leading inhibitors to mass deployment of power line today. By using MIMO, Sigma will be able to deliver multiple HD video streams to over 99% of the power outlets worldwide.

“We see great interest from the market for Sigma’s new MIMO features,” said Gabi Hilevitz, Vice President and General Manager, Home Connectivity Group of Sigma Designs. “We already have multiple design wins with our powerline solutions that use these features.”

“Installation complexity and cost are among the biggest impediments to IPTV deployment success,” said Gary Schultz, Chief Executive Officer of Multimedia Research Group. “This new announcement by Sigma could simplify the installation process and change the cost structure for deploying IPTV. As a result, the industry could grow even faster than the 30% we are predicting.” MRG expects the IPTV market to grow to 83 million households by 2013.

“This is potentially a real breakthrough,” said Schultz. “It could change the industry landscape by making G.hn powerline communication a standard networking technology embedded into consumer electronics devices, gateways and set top boxes.”

Sigma’s MIMO technology will fully comply with the newly-ratified G.hn recommendations and Sigma has already tested the technology in Europe, Asia and North America.

Availability

Early MIMO functionality will first deploy in the Sigma CG2110 HomePlug AV solution starting in July 2010 and will ship in more advanced versions that will double performance in Sigma’s new G.hn solution expected later this year.