First came a complete radio receiver on a chip. Now, Philips has developed the circuitry for an entire analog television set, complete with stereo surround sound capability and programmable flash memory, on a single integrated chip.
Designed for mid and low-end analog TV receivers, Philips' Ultimate One Chip (the UOCIII) is a third generation design that contains the complete functionality of a television set, including a TV signal processor, a teletext/closed-caption decoder, graphics generator, a microcontroller core with an extended 80C51 instruction set and newly integrated stereo audio functionality.
In addition to the new one-chip design, its DSP functions can do a range of tasks from boosting bass and improving speech intelligibility to decoding Dolby Pro Logic, SRS TruSurround and SRS 3Dsound.
The new chip is the first of its type to contain flash memory so that TV set manufacturers can make last minute updates or fix bugs in a particular model's operating system just before shipping the final product. Previously, changes in software could take as long as eight weeks to implement.
Samples of the new Philips UOCIII chip are available now. Full-scale availability is slated for January, with volume shipping expected by mid-2003.
For more information visit www.semiconductors.philips.com.
