Entropic Silicon Tuner Deployed in EchoStar Over-the-Air Module

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
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Entropic RF4400 ATSC Tuner Enhances Customer Viewing Experience for Over-the-Air HD Reception

SAN DIEGO — Entropic Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTR), a leading provider of silicon and software solutions to enable connected home entertainment, announced today that its RF4400 ATSC Silicon Tuner has been selected by EchoStar Technologies L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (Nasdaq:SATS), for inclusion in its high-definition over-the-air (OTA) module for select HD set-top boxes. The RF4400 is an advanced silicon tuner that provides high performance in a small form factor.

RF4400 Breaking Performance Barriers

Entropic’s RF4400 boasts a compact, single-chip design. It was engineered to meet or exceed the A/74 compliance specification of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) digital TV standards. The RF4400 is a solid state device that integrates the tracking filter, low-noise amplifier (LNA), mixer, channel filter and both the voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and phase-locked loop (PLL) functionality in one high-performance chip. The RF4400 allows key characteristics of the tuner to be programmed via software to optimize front-end performance for different environmental conditions. The result is an advanced silicon tuner that eliminates the performance barriers restricting most discrete tuners and provides customer premise equipment (CPE) manufacturers’ high-performance in a small form factor solution.

“EchoStar has consistently delivered leading edge HD solutions to the set-top box market by focusing on performance in all aspects of our products,” said Mark Jackson, president of EchoStar Technologies L.L.C. “Our relationship with Entropic for our tuner requirements has helped us in our efforts to continue to deliver innovative and quality products that meet our customers’ expectations.”

Enhancing the Digital Broadcast Solutions (DBS) Viewing Experience
EchoStar selected the RF4400 for their HD OTA module based on its performance and form factor. Its high level of integration enables compact design of a dual ATSC tuner subsystem. EchoStar models 222K and 722K include an option for consumers to insert an OTA module that contains two RF4400 ATSC tuners per module, which allows consumers to watch and record two different HD terrestrial channels simultaneously.

“The RF4400 is a powerful silicon tuner designed to meet the needs of CPE manufacturers as they address the challenges of high-definition content,” said Patrick Henry, CEO of Entropic Communications. “We are pleased that EchoStar has adopted Entropic’s RF4400 as part of its solution for delivering state-of-the-art, over-the-air HD viewing experiences to consumers. By continuing to work closely with EchoStar, we are raising the bar for product quality and innovation.”