Horizon Semiconductors announces the world's first single chip dual channel 1080/60p HD decoder & integrated transcoder for Cable and Satellite Set-Top Boxes

-- Horizon Semiconductors, a leading provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable secure video and audio compression & transmission for the consumer electronics and home entertainment markets, announced the immediate availability of the industry's first single chip multi-standard dual-channel HD Decoder with integrated Encoder/Transcoder for the Cable and Satellite Set-Top Box, Digital Video Recorder and Home Media Center markets.

The Hz4120 and Hz3120 integrate real time dual HD AVC, VC-1, DV/HDV or MPEG2/4 decoder & AVC, VC1, MPEG2/4 encoder/transcoder, along with an advanced audio processor, embedded application CPU, 2D/3D graphics accelerator and multi-plane display processor into a single chip, thus enabling end-users to substantially benefit from the lower cost, smaller size and improved features of next-generation STBs and media players. Furthermore, the Hz4120 and Hz3120 embed a variety of advanced interfaces and security features targeted to meet the specific design characteristics of the Cable and Satellite markets respectively. STBs with Horizon's integrated SoC solutions will allow operators to provide current and future subscribers with advanced services including more hours of stored programs, transfer of video and audio content to portable media players, cell phones & game consoles, and location-free (place-shifting) TV at home and over the network.

"Since Horizon's inception over four years ago, we have stealthily made a number of significant technology and product breakthroughs across the range of the markets we serve," said Amir Morad, Horizon's President and CEO. "Our internally developed rich IP portfolio now enables a new breed of advanced STB products designed to provide significant functionality, feature set and cost improvements. With the Hz4120 and Hz3120, Horizon has leapfrogged the integration path of its competitors."

Hz4120 and Hz3120 integrated HD Encoder/Transcoder uses advanced ultra- wide range motion estimation, adaptive picture quality analysis and rate control algorithms to provide real time HD 1920x1080 at the highest encoding quality, at bit rates previously achievable only by offline software encoders, significantly reducing the STB disk storage requirements, as well as enabling low-bandwidth high-definition video/audio transcoding and transmission applications.

"Horizon's single-chip solution represents a significant milestone in the evolution of STB," said Leonid Yavits, Horizon's Chief Technology Officer. "Operators are now compelled to offer entirely new advanced applications spanning from a 60fps decoding, transferring video/audio to portable media players and mobile devices, to place shifting and networked PVR. The Hz4120 and Hz3120 will enable manufacturers to deliver advanced high-definition video at very attractive consumer price points, and will play a pivotal role in enabling these advanced applications."

Product Information

The Hz4120 and Hz3120 are designed with the highest level of integration, embedding a variety of cutting edge technologies such as:

• Powerful multi stream decoder and encoder engines, supporting real-time dual channel HD decoding or 12 channel SD decoding simultaneously with HD encoding/transcoding, using leading compression standards including: H.264 (AVC) Main and High Profile up to Level 4.2, VC-1 (SMPTE 421M) Advanced Profile @ Level 3, DV, HDV, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 at resolutions of up to 1080/60p (1920x1080, 60 frames/sec).
• Advanced display processor allowing multiple plane true color blending, flexible resizing, motion adaptive high-definition de-interlacing and advanced motion-compensated picture enhancement.
• High definition, powerful 2D and 3D graphics accelerator, supporting popular standards such as X Window System and OpenGL.
• Multi-channel multi-format audio encoder, decoder, and special audio effects processor, supporting leading standards such as: MPEG-1 Layer I and II, Dolby® Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, MP3, AAC/AAC-LC/AAC-HE, DTS and WMA.
• High performance application CPU with MMU, capable of running standard operating systems such as Linux or Microsoft Windows-CE.
• Multi-stream high bandwidth transport processor, designed to process up to 7 streams concurrently.
• Advanced video pre-processor, supporting temporal, spatial and non- linear adaptive noise reduction filter.
• Wide variety of advanced connectivity and peripherals including 10/100/1G Ethernet, USB 2.0, IDE/ATAPI, SMPTE-292, Flash, I2C, SPI/SSI, UART and others.
• DVI/HDMI output with integrated HDCP security.
• IEEE 1394 (FireWire) with integrated DTCP security (on Hz4120).
• IR & UHF Remote control processor supporting IR/UHF keyboards and IR- Blaster.
• World-class security processor with embedded secure OTP memory, enabling complete content protection in strict compliance with numerous CA/DRM schemes commonly used in the cable (Hz4120) and satellite (Hz3120) marketplace.
• Powerful, easy to use API, with the ability to accelerate and off-load host application code.
  

"A single-chip, low cost, standard-compliant SoC solution will drive volume deployment of high-definition video transcoding & transmission," commented Morad. "The introduction of a best-of-breed video quality single- chip dual channel decoder & encoder/transcoder SoC, coupled with our aggressive pricing, will be the first step towards obsolescing decoder-only set-top boxes, while enabling location-free content access."

To facilitate faster time-to-market, Horizon is also announcing the immediate availability of the HzR4120 and HzR3120 reference design kits. These fully operational cable/satellite STB products include PCB schematics, full software design kit and documentation.

About Horizon Semiconductors

Horizon Semiconductors is a leading provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable secured video and audio compression & transmission for the consumer electronics and home entertainment markets. Using proprietary technologies and advanced design methodologies, Horizon designs, develops and supplies complete system-on-a-chip solutions and related hardware and software applications. Horizon's diverse product portfolio includes solutions for digital cable, satellite and IPTV Set-top boxes, DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players and recorders, HDTV, Digital Video Recorders and Home Media Centers.
Horizon is headquartered in Herzliya, Israel, and may be contacted at +972-77-2020400 or at www.horizonsemi.com.