Mitel Corporation announced two decoder ICs that boost performance in satellite and terrestrial set-top box (STB), integrated television sets, and PC applications.
The MT312 for satellite applications, and the MT351 for terrestrial receivers, provide ultra-fast auto-scan capability, which enables systems to rapidly detect and tune digital television channels delivered by satellite and terrestrial links. The devices also incorporate the digital functionality required to support interactive services such as two-way television, e-commerce, video-on-demand and digital video encoding.

The MT312 and MT351 decoders have also been combined with Mitel's tuners in two new reference designs that offer complete front-end solutions. Building on Mitel's expertise in RF, tuner, and STB integrated circuit design, the solutions speed time-to-market for equipment manufacturers by reducing hardware and software design-in cycles. The reference designs reduce manufacturing costs by eliminating the need for production alignment and RF screening.

"Mitel's new decoder ICs have been carefully designed to provide the most direct and cost-effective route to market," said Jim Wallace, program manager, Mitel Semiconductor. "They kick-off our roadmap to deliver further integration, cost reduction and increased functionality to support integrated home-networking services for voice, data and video."

Digital television poised for high growth

According to Cahners In-Stat Group, the market for digital and Integrated Digital Television (iDTV) is expected to be over US $4 billion by 2004, up from US $800 million in 2000. Broadband interactive TV services such as e-commerce, pay-per-view sports, and personal video recording are going to drive this market. Datacasting services, which provide data services over terrestrial and satellite links, are already fueling strong demand for digital PC tuner applications.

"With so many factors contributing to the growth of digital television, there are major opportunities for any company that can bring complete, easy-to-implement solutions to market," said Gerry Kaufhold, principal analyst for Cahners In-Stat Group. "Supplying a turnkey solution that eliminates the cost and time associated with RF screening and production alignment should position Mitel to be a leader in this huge new industry."

Devices enhance performance with ultra-fast auto-scan capability

The MT312 is a single-chip variable rate digital Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) satellite decoder. The device integrates two 6-bit ADC converters and a unique controller for acquisition and tracking modes that ensure minimal interaction, maximum flexibility, and the fastest auto-scan capability of any chip on the market today. With the ability to scan across the complete Astra band in under 10 seconds, the device enhances performance by enabling channels to be quickly acquired and tuned.

The MT351 decoder incorporates advanced Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division

Multiplex (COFDM) technology that optimizes performance in the presence of low carrier-to-noise ratios. This provides broadcasters with wider coverage and lower power dissipation, while enhancing reception. The MT351 is easy to program, minimizes software control overhead on the main system processor, and provides very fast auto-search capability. In the United Kingdom, the device is able to scan across the complete UHF band in under six seconds, positioning it among the fastest devices on the market.

These are, of course, European solutions in the sense that as a pair of devices they will provide receiver solutions for satellite (DVB-S or DSS) and terrestrial DTV in COFDM (DVB-T.) Neither are solutions for the 8-VSB system in the United States. The comments from the analyst quoted in the release should therefore be treated as being either out-of-context or a misunderstanding.

The MT312 is a QPSK/BPSK demodulator with I and Q ADCs, the demodulator with compensation and filtering and full Viterbi and Reed-Solomon decoding and coding corrections to produce an MPEG-2 transport stream. Mitel recommend that it be used with its zero-IF SL1935 tuner and an intermediate two channel low-pass filter. The ADCs on-board are only 6 bits but Mitel claims that the on-chip digital filtering supports 1 to 45 Mbaud. It certainly seems that the solution offers an extremely low software overhead and a very fast scanning time. The part will operate at 1.8 V and has an unquoted "low" standby power.

The MT351 expects to receive a standard 36-MHz IF from a UHF tuner and directly uses a 10-bit ADC to feed the COFDM demodulator. Viterbi and Reed-Solomon, again, provide a MPEG-2 transport stream. The part can be used in either 2 K or 4 K carrier modes and a zero IF front-end solution can also be accepted. The MT351 is again 1.8-V capable and the company describes there being two modes of low power operation.

Both these parts should be a hit in STBs for the European market. The MT312 is sampling in an PQFP-80 and will be priced at $3.90 in 100-k piece lots. The MT351 is also sampling in PQFP-80 and will be priced at a rather staggering $10.99 in 100-k piece lots.

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