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| Sigma Introduces Next Generation IPTV Media Processor Sigma Designs has begun sampling its new SMP8654 media processor SoC, designed for the next generation of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) set-top boxes. The SMP8654 provides a 50% improvement in performance along with lower overall system costs to provide a substantially improved value proposition for the burgeoning IPTV market. Demand for IPTV has been sweeping across the globe over the past two years, with over ten million worldwide IPTV subscribers now being serviced in Europe, North America, and Asia. During the past two years, nearly every major worldwide telco has begun offering IPTV video services, with deployments now being split between the Microsoft Mediaroom platform and a range of Linux based platforms. Demand in Europe has been strong for several years with the largest IPTV deployments taking place in France where Free (Illiad), Neuf, and France Telecom are jointly accounting for more than two million subscribers while Deutche Telecom in Germany pushes past the 500K subscriber level this year. In North America, AT&T is now hitting its stride with expectations of one million subscribers by the end of 2008, in addition to several smaller deployments by regional Canadian carriers. In Asia, Korea is seeing rapid expansion as both Hanaro and Korea Telecom continue their ramp, while deployments in China, Japan, and Taiwan continue to rise. As the IPTV industry approaches mass commercialization, economic factors are beginning to take center stage. Since the set-top box is typically subsidized by the operator, as volume increases, unit costs have become a primary concern. Additionally, as the collective installations of set-top boxes represent a substantial distributed asset, their longevity or "future-proofing" are now a major consideration as the industry moves into this next phase of deployment. Sigma's SMP8654 media processor integrates a complete complement of next-generation capabilities for a single-chip system-on-chip (SoC) solution with powerful multimedia processing, robust content security system, multiple on-chip CPUs, and a full complement of system peripherals. Its combination of on-chip processors and memory controllers yield an impressive 50% increase in overall performance to provide the headroom needed for next generation IPTV service features. At the same time, taking advantage of the latest memory components and integrated peripherals, the SMP8654 can reduce sub-system cost by around 30 percent compared to its predecessor, the industry leading SMP8634. From a media processing standpoint, the SMP8654 offers a full complement of advanced decoder engines with high definition video decoding, including of H.264 (MPEG-4 part 10), Windows Media Video 9, VC-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (part 2), and the new AVS standard. High-performance graphics acceleration, multi-standard audio decoding, advanced display processing capabilities, and HDMI 1.3 output round out its multimedia core. Powerful content security is ensured through a dedicated secure processor, on-chip flash memory, and a range of digital rights management (DRM) engines for high-speed payload decryption. The SMP8654 also features a full complement of system peripherals, including a dual Gigabit Ethernet controller, dual USB 2.0 controller, NAND flash controller, IR controller, and SATA controller. Taking performance to the next level is accomplished by combining significant increases in CPU speed, memory bandwidth, and architectural efficiencies. The SMP8654 is a multi-core media processor that features a 500 MHz MIPS 24k main CPU that enables crisp user interaction and a wider range of application-based features which enhance the "future-proofing" of this platform. A second MIPS processor called the IPU manages interrupt operations and offloads burdensome system tasks, such as portions of the network stack to further optimize main CPU utilization. A third MIPS processor manages all system security functions including decryption and key generation. The SMP8654 also features a new DDR-2 memory controller which supports double-data-rate memories up to 666 Mbps as well as an improved arbitration engine to maximize the efficiency of accesses. Finally, the SMP8654 maintains software compatibility with the Sigma Multimedia Library to uniquely build on the proven performance and reliability of the earlier generation platforms. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Computing News :: home page |