STMicro to showcase Home Entertainment solns

BANGALORE, INDIA: STMicroelectronics announced on Wednesday that it would parade its advanced multimedia solutions for set-top box (STB), digital TV, digital audio and other consumer applications, with particular focus on new technologies in the areas of broadband services, home connectivity and 3DTV at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011.

Broadband Technologies

ST will showcase a variety of advanced broadband technologies and service-expanding applications running on the company’s STi7108 decoder-based STB platforms and its FLI7540 ‘Freeman Ultra’ for digital TVs, said a press release.

These demos will include the Nokia Qt cross-platform application framework and the YouView Internet-connected digital TV platform, running Adobe AIR, which is a software engine that allows the development of new broadband services, both for interfaces and applications, based on Adobe Flash.

Another demo will feature a proof-of-concept solution for HbbTV (Hybrid broadcast broadband TV), which is a major pan-European initiative aimed at harmonizing the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment to the consumer through connected TVs and STBs.

Home Connectivity

In home connectivity, ST has a suite of demos based on a ‘headless’ home gateway (i.e. not connected to a TV) that shares streaming audio/video with three different set-top boxes, via MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) communication technologies.

Many advances in the DisplayPort standard will be demonstrated, including: ST’s Vega chip driving a 3D monitor using the new DP1.2 standard; MyDP (Mobility DisplayPort), the new standard for full HD (1080p) video from mobile devices; and the new auxiliary channel supporting USB 2.0, the release added.

3DTV

In 3DTV sector, ST will be hosting several demos, including those from leading customers, in the areas of 3D graphics, streaming full-High-Definition stereoscopic 3DTV, 3D interfaces and 3D gaming. Demonstrations will showcase ST’s leading-edge System-on-Chip (SoC) ICs, including the STi7108 decoder for STB markets.

The chipmaker said STi7108 delivers an exceptional high-definition 3DTV experience for consumers with its unprecedented CPU performance, in conjunction with its integrated ARM Mali-400 graphics processor.

The STi7108 also has market-leading energy efficiency due to its low-power configurable architecture and low-power manufacturing process, the release said.