Micronas introduces DVB-S2 PCIe design to tune and decode H.264 at HD-quality for media PCs (0620)
Micronas delivers world’s first HD-quality dual tuner/decoder design; enables HDTV on PC-based satellite receivers with a DVB-S2 tuner card reference design that includes complete decoding in hardware.
Freiburg, Germany, December 14, 2006 - Micronas (SWX Swiss Exchange: MASN), a leading supplier of innovative application-specific IC system solutions for consumer electronics, today announced the launch of MicHognose™2D-X, a dual-tuner DVB-S2 PCI Express® card reference design for home theater solutions. The MicHognose™2D-X reference design allows ODMs and OEMs to integrate affordable H.264/AVC and VC-1 content consumption on PCs, media centers, and home theater systems.
Each channel of the MicHognose 2D-X design supports DVB-S and the new DVB-S2 standard. The reference design supports watching and/or time-shifting one program while recording another. The Micronas DeCypher high-definition streaming media decoder enables additional applications on the same system, such as HDTV, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, streaming internet video, and IPTV.
"MicHognose 2D-X complements our series of reference designs for PCI Express tuner cards based on the Micronas nGene® PCI Express architecture, a technology that ensures users will always enjoy the best TV entertainment available on their PCs," says Kai Scheffer of the Media Home Group at Micronas. “We have combined our expertise in advanced video decoding and PCI Express interfacing to bring HDTV to the ‘Family PC’ - at the required quality and price points.”
"Nowadays, most PC displays today support near or full high-definition resolution, but until now only PCs with high-end graphics cards or quad CPUs could decode the HD content, " says Thorsten Meiners, Managing Director at High-Def Technology. High-Def has announced its System 1, a PC-technology based living room entertainment system that features the MicHognose 2D-X reference design. "MicHognose 2D-X provides the ideal solution to get HDTV content into the price point and form factor that will push PC-based entertainment systems into the main stream consumer market."
The DeCypher DHM8100A and the nGene APB7202 work together on MicHognose 2D-X to deliver two channels simultaneously. With all decoding functions realized in the DeCypher hardware, it does not burden the CPU and is compatible with either integrated graphics controllers or external graphics adapters. Power consumption is minimized, enabling the low-noise operation that is essential to any device operating in a living room environment. The nGene architecture is capable of transporting two compressed and one uncompressed HDTV channel over PCI Express, going far beyond the bandwidth offered by conventional PCI slots. nGene is certified by the PCI-SIG to be PCI Express 1.0a compliant.
The MicHognose 2D-X reference design supports free TV services and relies on USB-attached conditional access solutions or Soft-CAM solutions for Pay TV reception.
MicHognose 2D-X joins the DVB-T based MicPython®2H-X, the ATSC-based MicViper®2H-X, and the recently announced MicRacer®1D-X H.264 / VC-1 in a family of nGene-based reference designs supported by a common driver software model. A unified driver architecture across the entire family makes it easy for ODMs to produce world-standard cards from these designs. MicHognose 2D-X, like the other family members, is a complete, production-ready solution. Reference design kits include BOM, full schematics, Gerber files and the driver binaries. Complete evaluation kits are available to qualified hardware manufacturers now.