The Helion DVB-CSA cores implement the ETSI specified Common Scrambling Algorithm (CSA) which is used to provide the conditional access mechanism for MPEG-2 video streams for use in Pay-TV systems adopted by Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) consortium. It has also been specified by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for use within Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) applications, where it provides data security within the Basic Interoperable Scrambling System (BISS) Mode 1 and Mode E specifications.
Both the Scrambling and Descrambling cores have been carefully designed for optimal use in FPGA technology, and offer high throughput rates combined with low logic resource utilisation. They can support DVB scrambling and descrambling applications at data throughputs in excess of 200Mbps even in the lowest cost FPGA devices, and at rates over 500Mbps in the higher performance FPGA families – all whilst using only modest logic resources.