MaxLinear, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based integrated circuit company, has developed a TV tuner chip that it said meets all global digital and analog cable and terrestrial TV standards.
The chip, designated the MxL5007, uses CMOS technology and does not rely on external tracking and SAW filters, PPL loop filters or other such outboard devices for operation.
“Achieving a tuner, especially in CMOS, with this level of performance and integration has been an elusive goal for the industry,” said Ted Alexander of Mission Ventures, a southern California investment firm. “We are very excited about what this means for MaxLinear¹s market position in the global tuner market.”
In addition to reducing the dependence upon outside components for operation, the new chip features low power consumption—300 mW—some three to six times lower than other tuner chips. It tunes a frequency range of from 44 MHz to 1002 MHz and is designed for a 75-ohm input. It can demodulate a variety of signals including ATSC, DVB-T, DVB-H, 64/256-QAM, NTSC, PAL and SECAM.
Applications for the new integrated circuit tuner chip, in addition to direct use in television receivers, include set-top terrestrial and cable tuner boxes, PCs, PDAs, digital media players, in-car television receivers, personal video recorders and others.
Engineering samples of the MxL5007 will be available in the last quarter of 2007 and production runs are expected to start in the second quarter of 2008.
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