Legend Silicon Partners With Sharp to Deliver Digital TV to Mobile Devices

Legend Silicon’s Technology Serves as a Foundation for Integrated Single Chip Solution for China’s GB20600-2006 Standard

FREMONT, Calif. — Legend Silicon Corporation, a leading technology company delivering semiconductor solutions for terrestrial digital TV (DTV), today announced that it has partnered with Sharp Corporation, a major Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer, to develop an integrated single chip solution. This chip enables mobile devices such as portable media players (PMPs), handheld TVs and mobile phones in China to receive the GB20600-2006 terrestrial digital television broadcast.

This joint development expands Legend Silicon’s mobile products portfolio in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and builds on its long history with Sharp. Legend Silicon and Sharp first collaborated in 2003 on a joint reference design that combined Legend Silicon’s demodulator and Sharp’s tuner module, which led to Sharp using Legend Silicon’s demodulator solutions in their digital TVs.

The single-chip solution — LGS-8GS6 — integrates Legend Silicon’s demodulator, which is compliant with the China Digital Television Terrestrial Broadcasting (DTTB) System Standard (GB20600-2006), the Sharp silicon tuner and a time de-interleaver memory into a small advanced technology System-In-Package (SIP) 48 ball grid array (BGA). The LGS-8GS6 is specifically designed to meet the stringent low-power and space-constrained requirements of mobile devices.

“Legend Silicon’s GB20600-2006 standard demodulator is the leading solution available today for manufacturers to build terrestrial digital television solutions for any device with a screen, fixed or mobile,” said Lin Yang, co-founder, chairman and chief technology officer of Legend Silicon. “Our vast experience in co-inventing the core technology — combined with our work in driving the China DTTB standard — uniquely positions Legend Silicon as the technology and solutions provider of choice for developers of televisions, set-top boxes and a wide range of mobile devices. Through this partnership with Sharp, Legend Silicon has added an important new solution to its family of mobile products.”

China has the largest number of mobile phone subscribers in the world, with the total expected to reach 520 million in 2007, up from 460 million the year before, according to China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Such substantial growth — combined with upcoming Olympic Games — opens the doors for new mobile devices capable of supporting free-to-air mobile television. By combining its chip technology with Sharp’s tuner and advanced System-In-Package (SIP) technology, Legend Silicon is enabling consumers to view on their mobile devices the same TV programming which they receive on digital TVs in their homes.

Legend Silicon developed and worked closely with officials in China to establish the GB20600-2006 standard and the underlying advanced technology. The company was the first to develop a commercial digital TV semiconductor product based on the standard, which is now designed into many major brands of digital TVs and set-top boxes. Deployment of the GB20600-2006 standard in China is rapidly underway and will continue to gain momentum in preparation for the Olympic Games in Beijing in August 2008.

“Legend Silicon’s GB20600-2006 technology is an ideal foundation for building mobile devices that will enable consumers in China to access digital television programming over the air,” said Ryutaro Egawa, division general manager of Sharp’s RF Devices Division. “With its experience in developing an innovative technology and its standardization efforts, Legend Silicon is at the forefront of China’s digital TV revolution and together we are bringing new, advanced mobile devices to market.”

Samples of the integrated chipset are available now.