MICRONAS INTERMETALL presenting High Tech Solutions (9805)

From Multimedia to Automotive Electronics:

Freiburg, Germany, October 14, 1998 - This yea's Electronica will be the first international event for MICRONAS INTERMETALL to present itself under its new company name. The Freiburg-based semiconductor manufacturer is a leading supplier of mixed signal ICs, automotive controllers, and Hall-effect sensors.

Under the motto"New Ideas on Silico", the semiconductor specialist emphasizes its competence in developing and selling innovative solutions for market segments like consumer electronics, multimedia, automotive electronics, and telecommunications. MICRONAS INTERMETAL's developments focus particularly on digital video and audio signal processing (DSP) in TV and broadcast applications, as well as on convergence products of the consumer and multimedia worlds.

Several digital-audio IC solutions dedicated to music and voice applications will be on show this year. The main purpose of these products is data decompression according to MPEG layer 3, but also consumer DSP solutions in general. Among these, the particularly ambitious'StarMa' chip set developed for the digital satellite broadcasting project"Worldspac", and the new decoder for'Virtual Dolby Surround Soun', enabling the realization of surround sound systems using only two loudspeakers, will be shown.

Of great importance are the MPEG layer 3 decoders for the new digital audio players being brought to market by several manufacturers at the moment (e. g., the'MP ma'). For these applications, MICRONAS INTERMETALL provides the MPEG decoders as well as the D/A converters necessary to transform the system' digital signals back into audible analog sound.

An interesting convergence product between TV an PC is a video back-end processor, which can handle the different scan frequencies and screen formats related to the two areas and, for example, display TV pictures and computer graphics side-by-side on the screen.

Last but not least the enterprise will display its brandnew programmable Hall-effect sensor HAL 800 with integrated EEPROM and DSP. Being the worl's first and only of its kind, the HAL 800 provides an attractive, contact-free alternative to mechanical potentiometers and angle measuring devices.