Chipset Drives Set-Top Boxes

Outfitting full dual TV and dual personal video recorder (PVR) set-top boxes, the STi5528/STi4629 chipset is the latest member of the OMEGA family of STB decoders. The pair decodes two separate video and audio streams allowing users to connect two televisions to a single set-top box. While decoding the audio and video streams, the chipset can record two channels to a hard disk. The STi5528 employs an ST20 core running at 166 MHz and a 200 MHz ST40 processor to support all popular operating systems including Linux and Windows CE. It also provides UARTs, I2C and SPI master/slave interfaces, four PWM channels, a multi-channel infrared transmitter/receiver, and a modem analog front-end interface. Other features of the chipset include security functions, a video architecture that provides a dual stream MPEG2 ML video decoder and PAL, NTSC, and SECAM video encoders, and a USB interface. Sampling now with volume production scheduled for Q2 2004, prices for the STi5528 and STi4629 are $25 and $5 each/10,000, respectively. STMICROELECTRONICS, Lexington, MA. (781) 861-2650.