Micronas Smoothes the Way for 100 Hz Television Sets in the Consumer Market (0117)
Single-chip scan rate converter available now - offers up to 30 percent reduction in cost
Freiburg (Germany), August 27, 2001 - Micronas has started volume production of its scan rate converter chip VSP 94x2A, a single-chip solution used for the conversion of television pictures to 100 Hz.
The VSP 94x2A is the basis component of a new pin-compatible family of ICs, offering TV manufacturers a high grade of scalability by allowing them to realize a broad range of products from low-cost to high-end systems without any changes in the printed circuit board.
Two more chips of the highly integrated VSP family - the VSP 94x5B and the VSP 94x7B - have also become available.
With these new chips, Micronas offers a wide range of single-chip ICs allowing 100-Hz progressive scan television at a very competitive price. In addition to the 100-Hz conversion, the new ICs also support conversion into progressive scan display formats, as they are used in NTSC TVs for improving picture quality (mainly in the USA and Japan) and for new flat-panel technologies such as LCDs and plasma displays. Micronas believes that its cost-efficient single-chip solutions will contribute significantly to making 100 Hz TV the standard product for the mid-range and high-end consumer markets.
"Due to the flicker-free display, the 100-Hz- and progressive-scan TV is the optimal system to display photos taken with a digital still camera, too" said Johann Weierer, marketing manager for video and graphic at Micronas."This paves the way for new applications for the TV set as the central home entertainment medium in the living room - applications which so far have been limited to the PC and to the home-computing or working environment. In addition, 100-Hz television sets are compatible to DVD progressive scan" The first devices, which offer a significantly better picture quality than DVD, have been successfully introduced into the US market and are already planned for Europe.
Another unique feature of the 100 Hz and progressive scan TV is its ability to display 3D videos without any changes. This has been demonstrated by Grundig in its laboratory. Using glasses available for 3D PC games today and with supporting video sources, films can then be viewed in 3D quality.
By integrating analog and digital functions as well as memory on one single chip, Micronas has succeeded in producing a complete solution that requires no external digital memory to store pictures or additional color decoders, no stand alone 100-Hz chips or scan-rate decoder chips. This high grade of integration enables the system manufacturer to build very cost-effective solutions.
"Compared to a conventional solution consisting of four single chips, the VSP 94X7, for example, saves the manufacturer 30 percent of the costs" stated Weierer.
A closer look at the VSP 94x2A illustrates the high complexity level of the VSP family. The chip combines an A/D and D/A converter, multistandard color decoder (PAL, NTSC, SECAM), two YUV/RGB inputs with fast blank, an ITU 656 interface for integrated digital broadcast receiving, a horizontal scaler, noise suppression, a memory controller plus embedded picture storage with a memory capacity of 3 MBit.
The VSP 94x2A operates at 3.3 V and 1.8 V. The chip is available in an 80 pin P-MQFP package at a cost of below 15 € in high quantities.