Programmable Demodulator IC Propels Digital TV

The OR51210 is claimed to be the industry’s first programmable vestigial sideband demodulator IC. It’ll see application in broadcast digital TV receivers, set-top boxes, data receivers, and add-in cards--the latter will enable computers to show TV programs and receive data. The chip complies with the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) digital television standard and eliminates the need for an external microcontroller because its programmable DSP can reconfigure on the fly all the parameters of the built-in demodulator, matched filter, adaptive equalizer, forward error correction, numerically controlled oscillator and PLL by means of internal registers. Also on the IC is a proprietary adaptive equalizer that improves indoor reception. And the demodulator chip’s power dissipation is less than 2W using a single 3V power supply.