Mitsubishi Electric and Lucent Technologies announced a joint development agreement to create a five-chip ASIC set capable of handling all HDTV receiver functions for the U.S. market. The chip set, comprising approximately ten million transistors, was expected to reach sample availability in early 1998 and be sold to third-party TV manufacturers.
Joint Development
Source: Business Wire
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TOKYO & BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via Individual Inc. --
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T's systems and
technology businesses) have agreed to jointly develop a set of semiconductor
chips that together will perform all of the functions needed for
next-generation high-definition television (HDTV) sets for the U.S. market.
The chip set will be used by Mitsubishi in its own planned HDTV receiver, and
will be sold by both companies to other TV receiver manufacturers.
HDTV, also known as Advanced Television, or ATV, is a proposed new standard for television broadcasting that would replace the 45-year-old NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) standard in the U.S. with a digital technology that can offer movie-theater-quality picture and sound. The Mitsubishi/Lucent chip set will receive HDTV broadcast signals, process them, and display them on a high definition screen all in compliance with specifications that the FCC recommended in May. The first samples of the chip set will be available from both companies in early 1998. "We believe that we are the first two companies to announce plans to develop a complete HDTV chip set, and hope to be the first to bring HDTV silicon to market," said Jay Kshatri, manager of consumer video marketing in Lucent Technologies' Microelectronics Group. "By doing so, we hope to speed the introduction and acceptance of HDTV in the U.S." "This chip set is an ambitious engineering undertaking, comprising approximately ten million transistors and associated circuitry," said Yoshiyuki Nakai, chief engineer, Microcomputer and ASIC Division of Mitsubishi. The chip set will consist of five application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs): -- a demodulator, which separates the digital signals from the analog carrier wave on which they are transmitted; -- a demultiplexer, which separates the audio portion of a transmission from the video portion; -- an image decoder, which decompresses an encoded video signal; -- an audio decoder, which does the same for the audio portion of the transmission; and -- a display processor, which transforms decoded video signals to various display formats. The demodulator and demultiplexer chips are being developed by Bell Laboratories, the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies; the image decoder will be developed by Mitsubishi with support from Bell Labs; and the audio decoder and display processor chips are being developed by Mitsubishi. "By collaborating with Lucent, we can shorten the time it would take any one company to develop all five chips, and share the development costs," said Nakai. "In so doing, we hope to have HDTV sets in stores sooner, and with a lower price tag." "We're combining Bell Labs' core competence in signal encoding and decoding, transmission and processing, with Mitsubishi's deep expertise in TV receiver system design, high definition display technology, and audio and display processing technology," added Kshatri. Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and its North American affiliate, Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc., are world-class suppliers of semiconductors and electronic products for visual computing. Mitsubishi combines its systems-level expertise and high-level silicon process technology to provide chip, chip-set, and system-on-a-chip solutions. The company is ranked among the top 10 worldwide semiconductor suppliers. Lucent Technologies is a new company created as part of AT&T's restructuring into three separate, publicly held companies. Its Microelectronics Group designs and manufactures integrated circuits, optoelectronic components, power systems, and printed circuit boards for applications in the telecommunications and computing industries. In addition to such components, Lucent Technologies offers public and private networks, communications systems and software, and consumer and business telephone systems. CONTACT: Mitsubishi | Sherry Hill | 408/774-3188 (office) | or | Lucent Technologies | Charlie Hartley | 908/508-8226 (office) | 908/253-0241 (home) [06-25-96 at 14:53 EDT, Business Wire] |
