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IRVINE, Calif., Nov 22, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced a highly integrated digital broadcast satellite (DBS) decoder chip that enables system manufacturers to lower their development costs, allowing them to provide more competitive and cost-effective DBS set-top boxes for receiving basic digital program services. The Broadcom® BCM7312 DBS system-on-a-chip integrates all of the required features and functionality of an entry-level DBS set-top box at significantly reduced costs by simplifying the set-top box design through reduced part counts. It also lowers power requirements and enables faster manufacturing times.
"With the BCM7312, we focused our engineering expertise on reducing the set-top box system cost for the U.S. market and international markets such as Europe, Korea, India and China," said Brian Sprague, Broadcom's Senior Director of Marketing, Set-top Box and Digital TV Products. "The BCM7312 is Broadcom's first product to address the high-volume entry-level DBS set-top box market and sets a new standard of technology achievement in integration and cost reduction."
The BCM7312 single-chip DBS set-top box MPEG-2 audio/video decoder is an advanced, highly integrated solution that reduces the number of chips on an entry-level set-top box from five to one. It is the first chip in its class to integrate a front-end RF tuner, which reduces the complexity of the design and offers significant cost and board space savings to manufacturers. The BCM7312 leverages Broadcom's expertise in developing technology for the DBS markets by incorporating all of Broadcom's field-proven set-top box technologies, such as a high-performance MIPS® processor, advanced graphics engine, dual USB 2.0 host controller and physical interfaces, and international standard-based audio and video technologies. The chip also includes the latest DBS conditional access security circuitry required by these target markets.
"DIRECTV communicated its direction to Broadcom earlier this year and Broadcom has shown its ability to react quickly to our requirements," said Roger Lambert, Vice President of Engineering, Set-top Boxes, at DIRECTV Inc. "We are impressed with Broadcom's integration capabilities and also with the anticipated cost reduction in this very competitive sector."
BCM7312 Product Details
The BCM7312 incorporates a fully integrated RF tuner, QPSK receiver, MPEG- 2 compliant audio and video decoders, and a MIPS32® CPU core operating at 266 MHz. The processor architecture also includes a MIPS16e™ Application Specific Extension for code compaction, which reduces system memory requirements and the size of the footprint. The integrated advanced 2-D graphics engine allows applications such as Internet browsers and electronic program guides to deliver studio-quality text and graphics. The on-chip video encoder supports NTSC, PAL and SECAM with optional support for Macrovision® 7.1. Additional on-chip functionality includes the video line drivers, voltage regulator, audio HiFi DACs and support for LNB control via the DiSEqC 2.0 controller.
The BCM7312 also includes direct access arrangement (DAA) interface module with direct connection to a Silicon Laboratories Inc. line-side device. This highly-integrated DAA solution can be used as the return channel modem required in many interactive STB and TV applications. This solution eliminates many bulky external components from the printed circuit board, and allows a low cost software solution. The integrated module precludes the need for the system-side DAA device, and thus further reduces the cost and space requirements for the modem. The Silicon Laboratories DAA is compatible with worldwide PTT standards to further minimize system costs for manufacturers.
Pricing and Availability
The BCM7312 along with the BCM97312 reference design are available now in sample quantities. The chip is priced at $11.99 each in quantities of 100,000.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions that enable broadband communications and networking of voice, video and data services. We design, develop and supply complete system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions incorporating digital, analog, radio frequency (RF), microprocessor and digital signal processing (DSP) technologies, as well as related hardware and software system-level applications. Our diverse product portfolio addresses every major broadband communications market and includes solutions for digital cable and satellite set-top boxes; high definition television (HDTV); cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) modems and residential gateways; high-speed transmission and switching for local, metropolitan, wide area and storage networking; home and wireless networking; cellular and terrestrial wireless communications; Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateway and telephony systems; broadband network and security processors; and SystemI/O™ server solutions. These technologies and products support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and may be contacted at 1-949-450-8700 or at http://www.broadcom.com.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward- looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with theBCM7312 and other satellite set-top box products include, but are not limited to, general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict in the United States and other locations; the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in the markets for DBS silicon applications; delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in those markets; the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; our ability to retain, recruit and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the positions and numbers, with the experience and capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a cost- effective and timely manner; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our products and services; the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; changes in our product or customer mix; the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry and assembly capacity and raw materials; fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly facilities; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; the quality of our products and any remediation costs; the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations, particularly in light of recent events; the effects of natural disasters, public health emergencies, international conflicts and other events beyond our control; the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter; and other factors.
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.
Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, the Connecting everything logo, and SystemI/O™ are trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. MIPS®, MIPS32® and MIPS16e™ are trademarks of MIPS Technologies, Inc. Macrovision® is a trademark of Macrovision Corporation. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Press Contacts
Laura Brandlin or Bill Blanning
Corporate Communications
949-926-5108 or 949-926-5555
lbrandlin@broadcom.com or
blanning@broadcom.com
Broadcom Technical Contact
Nicholas Dunn
Product Line Manager
408-922-7391
ndunn@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Sr. Director, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation
http://www.broadcom.com
