CHANDLER, Ariz. Ø August 23, 1999 -- A new digital receiver technology from Motorola solves a potentially serious reception problem in digital and high-definition television (DTV/HDTV) broadcasts that use the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) transmission standard adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Broadcasters expressed concern recently when third-party test results showed that multipath reflections interfered with DTV reception. Addressing this issue, Motorola, in collaboration with TV pioneer Sarnoff Corporation, has created a revolutionary digital signal processing architecture and its first implementation in the MCT2100 demodulator and forward error correction (FEC) chip. The chip uses advanced proprietary algorithms and unique equalization architecture, providing excellent signal reception even for the most extreme static and dynamic multipath signal ensembles.
"The industry's efforts towards ATSC can now become a reality," said Wil Salhuana, Vice President and General Manager, Entertainment Solutions Division, Motorola. "The MCT2100 demonstrates Motorola's ability to engineer original, forefront technology solutions, which in this case, will have a significant impact on the quality of digital television technology. We combined Motorola's leading 0.18-micron CMOStechnology with state-of-the-art signal processing algorithms to provide a proven,
cost-effective solution."
Excellent Multipath Performance
Early implementations of 8-VSB (vestigial side band) HDTV transmissions showed problems in dynamic multipath and long-delay static multipath reception. The MCT2100 compensates for a broad range of dynamic echo ensembles with echo amplitudes approaching the level of the desired signal. In static multipath with long delays, the MCT2100 corrects ghosts with up to 41 microseconds of delay. It achieves this by incorporating a full equalizer design, which avoids the sparse equalizer techniques that compromise performance.
Glenn Reitmeier, Vice President for DTV and Web Media at Sarnoff, said the new chip means that all of the capabilities of the ATSC standard will be available to TV set makers and their customers, the viewers. "The MCT2100 is a major step forward in implementing the perfect pictures and reliable data transmissions that the creators of the ATSC standard intended for DTV and HDTV."
"The development of this technology demonstrates Motorola's commitment to provide the industry with solutions for the ATSC standard," said Bob Stokes, Director, Digital Television Operations.
The MCT2100 is a member of Motorola's M-DTV* chip set, which provides low-cost solutions to make digital television more affordable to the consumer, easing consumer's transition from analog to digital formats. The M-DTV chip set provides solutions for DTV sets, satellite and cable set-top boxes and digital versatile disk (DVD) players. The MCT2100 is part of Motorola's DigitalDNA* technology, the intellectual property that makes up the heart of intelligent consumer and business devices.
