Vestel Deploys Entropic Communications' Multi-Mode Hybrid Silicon Tuner

Entropic’s Radio Frequency Functionality Critical to the Selection Process; Enables Vestel to Support New DVB-T2 Service Offerings

SAN DIEGO — Entropic Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTR), a leading provider of silicon and software solutions to enable connected home entertainment, today announced that its EN4020 multi-mode hybrid radio frequency (RF) complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) silicon tuner has been selected by the Vestel Group, a leading European consumer electronics and digital technologies manufacturer, to deliver new digital video broadcast terrestrial (DVB-T and DVB-T2) services to the European market. Vestel will incorporate Entropic’s tuner technology into a variety of its set-top boxes (STBs), ranging from simple configurations to their high-end personal video recorder solutions.

The global tuner market continues to evolve so that the technology is migrating from discrete to integrated silicon implementations; enabling highly integrated and complex, yet easy to design-in solutions. In addition, DVB-T2 has exacting functionality requirements. For these reasons, Vestel chose Entropic’s ‘pure play’ high performance, stand- alone multi-mode hybrid silicon tuner over a traditional MOPLL (Mixer Oscillator Phase Lock Loop) implementation; emphasizing the ease of design-in. Additionally, Entropic’s single-chip solution can operate with a variety of demodulator and system-on-a-chip (SOC) solutions; providing Vestel flexibility in their selection of system partners, which ensures they can meet their specific requirements for high performance, but at a significantly reduced cost with an on-board implementation.

Entropic’s innovative design on the EN4020 allows simple software configurability to support the variety of system implementations and broadcasting standards. With the higher performance specifications required by the newer DVB-T2 networks, the EN4020’s superior RF design enables an unmatched viewing experience for the consumer. The high level of integration on the EN4020 contains all front-end functions and requires no external SAW (surface acoustic wave) filters or amplifiers. These features combined with the single ended RF input, reduce both board footprint and costs, while maintaining high quality reception.

“The global tuner market is trending toward solutions that will support advanced digital terrestrial modulation functionality for HDTV service, with thin profile requirements of TV and set-top boxes now dictating on-board and silicon based implementations,” said Vinay Gokhale, senior vice president, Marketing and Business Development, Entropic Communications. “As Vestel is one of the first vendors to achieve certification on the DVB-T2 standard, our relationship underscores the importance of the performance attributes of the EN4020, and the level of integration that simplifies the complexity of the RF implementation.”

The Entropic-powered Vestel STBs will become available in Q4 2011 and will be sold throughout the United Kingdom and Scandinavia.