Entropic Communications Partners with Jiuzhou Electronics to Deliver Next Generation Digital Cable Set-Top Boxes

Jiuzhou Electronics Selects Entropic’s RF4800 Silicon Tuner for Digital Cable Set-Top Box Platform

MIANYANG, CHINA — Entropic Communications, Inc (Nasdaq: ENTR) a leading provider of silicon solutions to enable connected home entertainment, has further increased its presence in China, the world’s largest cable market. Today, Entropic announced that its RF4800 silicon tuner for digital cable set-top box design has been selected by Jiuzhou Electronics as a platform for their next generation digital cable set-top boxes. Jiuzhou Electronics is a leading backbone enterprise manufacturer of complete electronic systems for Digital Video Broadcasting, including DVB Systems for CATV system and Hybrid Fiber Cable (HFC) networks.

Speed to Market, Increased Integration and High Performance

The rapid conversion from analog cable to digital cable broadcasting in China has resulted in higher performance requirements and accelerated development cycles for cable operators.

“We are seeing a high demand for more integration and increased performance requirements. These requirements have created the need for innovation and new approaches, such as silicon tuners for digital set-top box applications,” said Mr. Wang Qiang, Vice General Manager of Jiuzhou Electronics. “Jiuzhou Electronics partnered with Entropic Communications to develop a new generation of set-top boxes for digital cable applications. Entropic’s RF4800 digital cable tuner delivers high performance even in older cable networks and provides our engineering teams with more efficient design and manufacturability. We look forward to more cooperation and joint developments in the digital cable market with Entropic Communications.”

With superior signal sensitivity and a broad dynamic range, Entropic’s RF4800 DVB-C silicon tuner is the perfect complement to Jiuzhou Electronic’s existing technologies. The RF4800 provides all required RF and analog signal processing from the antenna to the demodulator IC input, including all front-end functions, a band-pass tracking filter, frequency conversion, staged gain control, and channel filtering blocks.

Eliminating Discrete Receiver Designs

As China’s cable broadcasters are upgrading their cable plants from analog to digital cable technology, the need to rapidly implement high-quality digital cable set-top boxes (DVB-C) has become a top priority. High performance silicon tuners are capable of meeting the performance requirements of cable operators and are essential to the design of new set-top boxes capable of delivering digital video to subscribers.

“As the transition to digital cable accelerates, we are seeing more companies searching for ways to shorten product development cycles,” stated John Graham, VP of Marketing at Entropic Communications. “Our RF product family meets this demand by providing manufacturers with an RF integrated circuit that eliminates the need to develop discrete receiver designs. We are proud to be partnering with Jiuzhou Electronics to bring the next generation digital cable set-top box solutions to market.”

Jiuzhou Electronics is a top innovator in the design and development of digital set-top boxes. The company is a leader in the design and manufacture of products that comply with the DVB standard, including digital satellite television receivers and digital cable set-top boxes. Jiuzhou currently has over 20% of the DVB-C market share in China for digital cable set-top boxes and sells its solutions into Europe, Australia, North America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.