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65nm Technology Provides a Faster, Smaller, Lower Power, Highly Integrated Dual Video Decoder SoC for Advanced Codec Set-Top Box Applications
DENVER, March 5, 2007 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ -- CableLabs Winter Conference -- Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced a new dual-channel AVC/MPEG-4/VC- 1/MPEG-2 video decoder system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed in a 65 nanometer process. The new high-performance video decoder SoC is being demonstrated at this week's CableLabs Winter Conference, and provides leading-edge functionality and performance when compared to existing set-top box (STB) solutions currently available.
"Our new 65 nanometer solution provides our customers with the industry's most advanced, highest performance, and most integrated solution for dual advanced video decoder media center set-top boxes," said John H. Gleiter, Senior Director of Marketing for Broadcom's Set-top Box line of business. "Customers will enjoy state-of-the-art performance, video quality, security, and system cost savings improvements provide by this new advanced 65 nanometer chip."
Announced today is the 65 nanometer Broadcom® BCM7400B dual-channel video decoder solution. The BCM7400B video decoder enables set-top box manufacturers to develop extremely high performance media centers, integrating the most advanced hardware features and functionality to securely decode, store and share multiple types of media including HDTV, video-on-demand, Internet, and digital music content. The BCM7400B also includes special hardware to properly support Broadband Home Media Distribution over external MoCA (Multimedia Over Coax Alliance) and 802.11n Wi-Fi® interfaces in support of new, higher revenue-generating multi-room DVR services.
At last year's 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show, Broadcom introduced the first-generation BCM7400 video decoder chip along with very complex software that enabled the company's set-top partners to develop media center platforms for their customers. The same robust software developed for the BCM7400 over the past year migrates directly to the BCM7400B, providing a clean technology bridge to a higher performing, more advanced solution that Broadcom customers can deploy. The benefit for set-top manufacturers is:
- Direct migration to state-of-the-art 65 nanometer technology
- Proven silicon platform and architecture that enables the quickest and least riskiest time-to-market for media-center solutions deploying later this year
- Technology that will provide the required processing power to run sophisticated JAVA-based OCAP™ software applications and advanced media sharing
- The preservation of existing software investments
"With over 200 million set top boxes deployed in the last two years, largely in the established digital cable and digital satellite markets, Broadcom's new 65 nanometer BCM7400B video decoder provides both performance and time-to-market benefits to this market," said Michelle Abraham, Senior Analyst for In-Stat. "The combination of an available hardware and software solution correctly positions Broadcom's customers for the growing media center set-top market."
Technical Information
Based on the most highly and successfully deployed advanced video decoder technology, the new BCM7400B AVC/VC-1/MPEG-2 decoder chip integrates all of the back-end features of a high performance dual decoder digital media center into a single-chip solution. Easily the most complex and sophisticated set- top chip to develop and manufacture, the BCM7400B features an unparalleled amount of integration and technology. These sophisticated features include:
- The industry's highest performance and only set-top SoC with a 1000 DMIPs dual-core MIPS32® CPU that provides the performance to support the most advanced and capable set-top software, including JAVA® OCAP™ and multi-client, multi-room DVR applications.
- World-Class HD and SD video quality enhancement technology with advanced per-pixel motion adaptive de-interlacing and sophisticated picture enhancement processing that removes noise and contouring improving video quality.
- Support for the latest generation of video decoding technologies including H.264/AVC main and high profile to level 4.1, SMPTE (the Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers) VC-1 simple, main, and advanced profile to level 3 and MPEG-2 main and high profiles. Advanced Video Compression technologies enable set-tops to support 100% more high-definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) television programming with the same level of bandwidth.
- Dual audio and video high definition (HD) channels that enable a single system to simultaneously deliver HD programs to multiple televisions in the home, support Picture-in-Picture(PIP), Picture-by-Picture (POP), and advanced 12+ Picture MOSIAC video decoding, plus watch and record applications.
- Support for higher-performance DDR2 SDRAM memories that provide over five (5) Gigabytes per second of total memory bandwidth.
- Fully integrated Dual 3.0 Gbps eSATA-II interfaces to support over 1 Terabyte Hard drives and DVR capabilities that enable the simultaneous recording and playback of more than 8 channels, both locally and to multiple clients.
- The only set-top solution to support both 2D and 3D graphics that can provide stylish program guides and navigation capabilities.
- An integrated and highly developed, independent content security processor that provides real-time encryption and decryption for all content, home network, and TV interfaces
The 65 nanometer process is the most advanced lithographic node for manufacturing semiconductors in large volumes today and provides significant benefits over 90nm and 130nm processes by enabling lower power consumption, smaller size and higher levels of integration. For Broadcom, the move to 65 nanometer process technology is changing the competitive landscape because of the breadth and depth of the communications intellectual property the company possesses. Without a broad portfolio of market-leading solutions to integrate, competitors are not able to take full advantage of the benefits that these next-generation processes provide. Broadcom's vast communications intellectual property for transporting voice, video and data at home, work and on-the-go are helping to enable customers and service providers with a truly seamless communications experience for end users worldwide.
Availability and Pricing
The 65 nanometer BCM7400B dual-channel video decoder is sampling shortly to early access partners. Pricing is available upon request.
About Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group
Broadcom offers manufacturers a range of broadband communications and consumer electronics SoC's that enable voice, video and data services over residential wired and wireless networks. These highly integrated silicon solutions continue to enable the most advanced system solutions on the market, which include digital cable, satellite and IP set-top boxes and media servers, broadband modems and residential gateways, high definition and digital televisions, HD DVD and Blu-ray™ disc players, DVD recorders and personal video recorders.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art, system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®.
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2006 revenue of $3.67 billion, and holds over 1,950 issued U.S. and 750 issued foreign patents, more than 5,900 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video and data.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5900 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 and business, 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 its BCM7400 video decoder 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, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, 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 set-top box 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; the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our existing products and services or demand for new products requested by our customers; intellectual property disputes and customer indemnification claims and other types of litigation risk; problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; 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; 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; 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; 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; the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry, assembly and test 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; 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 amended Annual Report on Form 10-K/A for 2005, amended Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q/A for the three months ended March 31, 2006, and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, all filed January 23, 2007, and our 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®, and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Wi- Fi® is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. JAVA® is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. OCAP™ is a trademark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. MIPS® is a trademark of MIPS Technology, Inc. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Trade Press Contact
Laura Brandlin
Senior Director, Marketing Communications
949-926-5108
lbrandlin@broadcom.com
Broadcom Investor Relations Contact
T. Peter Andrew
Vice President, Investor Relations
949-926-5663
andrewtp@broadcom.com
Broadcom Technical Contact
Joseph Del Rio
Senior Product Marketing Manager
408-922-8391
delrio@broadcom.com
SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Broadband
Broadcom Trade Press, Laura Brandlin, Senior Director, Marketing Communications, +1-949-926-5108, lbrandlin@broadcom.com; Broadcom Investor Relations, T. Peter Andrew, Vice President, Investor Relations, +1-949-926-5663, andrewtp@broadcom.com; Broadcom Technical, Joseph Del Rio, Senior Product Marketing Manager, +1-408-922-8391, delrio@broadcom.com
http://www.broadcom.com
