Apr 01, 2002 Newport Beach, CA
Conexant Systems, Inc., (Nasdaq:CNXT), a worldwide leader in semiconductor system solutions for communications applications, today announced the world's most highly integrated interactive cable set-top box (STB) single-chip solution.
The CX24430 provides STB manufacturers with a solution that enables them to offer advanced, fully interactive broadband home gateways and other cable STB solutions at significantly lower cost than products based on multi-chip solutions. The full-featured, Data Over Cable Interface/European Data Over Cable Interface (DOCSIS/EuroDOCSIS) CX24430 is the core device in Conexant's family of compatible single-chip cable STB devices, providing STB designers with a common hardware and software platform for the development of derivative products.
"The high incremental cost of adding separate DOCSIS silicon to today's digital set-top designs have deterred market adoption of advanced interactive products," said Michael Harris, president and principal analyst with Kinetic Strategies, an industry analyst firm. "Products like Conexant's new family of cable set-top box solutions open an important new chapter in consumer broadband set-top box design."
"Conexant's CX24430 platform enables set-top appliances with advanced interactive broadband and customization capabilities that were not previously possible," said Dan Marotta, senior vice president and general manager for Conexant's Broadband Communications Division. "Customers now have the flexibility to span the full spectrum of markets and applications with a single-chip solution supported by the industry's broadest portfolio of products that deliver broadband communications applications and services."
The CX24430 is the basis of a family of products that supports applications ranging from entry-level broadcast-only digital TV through a wide variety of advanced, interactive broadband services. These additional solutions include an entry-level interactive STB device tailored for U.S. networks, an interactive STB product tailored for European operators, an interactive STB with personal video recorder (PVR) services and one-way broadcast-only integrated circuit (IC) designs for international markets.
This enables customers to support multiple markets, applications and feature sets using a single convenient platform of devices which maintain pin as well as software compatibility. Conexant's solution also provides a platform for future enhancements, such as high-definition TV (HDTV) support, as industry standards solidify and demand for new features grows.
Programmable Architecture Improves Versatility, Performance
The CX24430 combines two high-performance, independent subsystems -- one for cable-modem functionality and the other for STB broadcast service decoding tasks -- into a single seamless solution delivering an aggregate of 522 million instructions per second (MIPS).
The cable-modem section of the CX24430 takes advantage of a programmable media access control (MAC) architecture to speed time-to-market for system solutions that are compliant with evolving worldwide standards. Performance is optimized by partitioning tasks between a dedicated 32-bit ARM940T central processing unit (CPU) and a programmable software MAC that enables compliance with worldwide standards including DOCSIS/EuroDOCSIS 1.0/1.1.
The front-end includes a complete upstream/downstream physical layer which is compatible with CableLabs(R) advanced time division multiple access (TDMA) physical layer specification. The cable-modem section includes the capability for narrowband interactivity based on the Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC) 1.2 and 1.5, as well as the DVS178 and DVS167 specifications.
The STB decoder portion of the CX24430 combines an MPEG-2 video decoder, digital audio decoder, three multi-standard transport stream demultiplexers, a video broadcast channel quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)/forward error correction (FEC) demodulator, an advanced 2D graphics processor, a TV encoder, a multi-plane compositing engine with an ARM920 CPU, and integrated peripheral I/O ports. It delivers a high-quality navigation/user interface for advanced electronic program guides and other interactive applications. For PVR applications, it can simultaneously record two programs while playing back a third.
A high-speed hard disk drive controller interface enables fast data transfers during pause and instant replay, and data encryption standard (DES) ciphering provides copy protection for recorded content. The CX24430 supports DVB and DES descrambling on each of its three transport demultiplexer units, and a version of the product also includes additional functionality to support the Videoguard(R) conditional access system developed by NDS Ltd.
Together, the CX24430's two independent subsystems give operators a high level of flexibility and performance. The programmable transport stream demultiplexing architecture easily adapts to new multiplex requirements, and the programmable software MAC accommodates new cable-modem standards and feature sets by downloading updates. Its unique dual-processor architecture provides ample power for hosting the operating system, interactive middleware and interactive TV applications, while simultaneously running broadband router applications and delivering unprecedented cable-modem packet performance in full support of industry standards.
Fully integrated middleware and real-time operating system (RTOS) support includes optimized hardware abstraction layer solutions for Liberate, OpenTV EN2, pSOS, Nucleus+ and VxWorks. Conexant's proven DOCSIS/EuroDOCSIS 1.0/1.1-certifiable software named InfoSurge(TM) includes MAC code, system controller code and peripheral drivers. It meets the specific network requirements of Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) for Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 1998 and Windows NT.
Finally, the CX24430's integrated I/O ports such as peripheral component interface (PCI), universal serial bus (USB) and Ethernet enable the attachment of high-bandwidth peripherals. The CX24430 also includes an embedded IEEE 802.3 10/100 MAC with a media independent interface (MII) for direct access to home networking products, plus a host interface to accommodate Internet protocol (IP) telephony and IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.11b wireless networking standards. Conexant's system-level approach reduces development costs and time-to-market for OEM customers by incorporating the CX24430 and software into a comprehensive STB system reference design.
Pricing and Availability
The CX24430 is sampling now with volume production scheduled for the second half of 2002. Each device is packaged in a 452-pin ball grid array (BGA), and priced in 100,000-unit OEM volumes starting at $40 each, depending on functionality.
About Conexant
Conexant Systems, Inc. is a worldwide leader in semiconductor system solutions for communications applications. Conexant leverages its expertise in mixed-signal processing to deliver integrated systems and semiconductor products through two separate businesses: Conexant and Mindspeed Technologies.
Conexant's personal networking business is focused on wireless communications, digital infotainment and personal computing products that are used in mobile communications and the broadband digital home. Mindspeed Technologies designs, develops and sells a complete portfolio of semiconductor networking solutions that facilitate the aggregation, transmission and switching of data, video and voice from the edge of the Internet to linked metropolitan area networks and long-haul networks.
Conexant, headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif., delivered revenues of $1.1 billion for fiscal 2001, and has approximately 6,900 employees worldwide. The company is a member of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 indices. To learn more, visit us at http://www.conexant.com or http://www.mindspeed.com.
