MaxLinear cable receiver ICs in next generation TiVo platform

Friday, September 9th, 2011
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MaxLinear Cable Receivers Drive New Whole House Entertainment System; Small, low power and high performance MxL241SF integrated tuner/demod IC built into next generation TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) platform

CARLSBAD, Calif. — IBC 2011 — MaxLinear Inc. (NYSE: MXL), a fabless semiconductor company developing all-CMOS broadband radio-frequency (RF) & mixed-signal integrated circuit (IC) solutions for consumer markets, today announced that its MxL241SF single-die integrated tuner and QAM demodulator is the MPEG tuner behind the TiVo® Premiere Elite, TiVo Premiere Q and TiVo Preview products.

TiVo’s whole home cable television solution includes the TiVo® Premiere Q which serves as a DVR and video gateway for cable operators and supports four incoming HD cable TV streams as well as video on demand content over IP. The Premiere Q is connected to the main cable drop and communicates to the TiVo Preview, which functions as a thin client in other rooms throughout the house creating a fantastic multi-room viewing experience. The TiVo Preview also can be used by cable operators as a standalone HD cable STB.

The competition in today’s residential gateway and STB market is fierce and manufacturers are challenged with developing multi-channel designs where small size and low power devices have become critical for meeting MSO requirements. The MxL241SF is an easy and cost effective method for adding channels in more complex STBs and gateways.

The MxL241SF combines MaxLinear’s cutting-edge front-end RF technology with a proven QAM demodulator solution. The device tunes to 256 QAM and 64 QAM channels up to 1GHz and provides a standard MPEG transport stream output for DOCSIS and video applications while meeting the high performance, low power and small form factor requirements for developing next-generation, multi-tuner cable video gateways and advanced set-top boxes (STBs). The device also supports legacy out-of-band (OOB) reception with CRX/DRX outputs to a CableCARD™, and one is used in each of the TiVo boxes for this function.

“This design win with TiVo is an important milestone for MaxLinear. TiVo sets extremely high standards for its products, and TiVo’s selection of our cable tuner-demodulator SoC is a wonderful validation of our exceptional CMOS broadband RF/mixed-signal IC technology,” said Brian Sprague, MaxLinear’s Vice-President, and General Manager for Broadband & Consumer products. “TiVo has found the MxL241SF to provide the ideal tradeoff between cost, power and space to be able to incorporate multiple receivers in the form factors of existing platforms as well as enabling smaller form factor platforms such as the TiVo Preview.”