Imagination Technologies Launches Multi-Standard Mobile TV Receiver Core with 1seg ISDB-T Support

Imagination Technologies, a leader in system-on-chip Intellectual Property (SoC IP), announced today that it has added support for the Japanese 1seg ISDB-T mobile TV standard to its licensable mobile TV IP Core.

The ENSIGMA UCC224 multi-standard mobile TV IP core enables devices to provide multiple-standard support in the same country and roam between countries with different standards. By supporting multiple standards on the same IP core Imagination’s licensing partners are significantly reducing the total cost of ownership for global mobile TV technology. Imagination is demonstrating the platform at ARM Developers’ Conference & Design Pavilion 2007 from October 2nd – 4th.

The UCC224 supports the widest range of standards available on a single receiver platform, including: DVB-H, DVB-T, 1seg ISDB-T, Enhanced Packet Mode DAB, DAB-IP and T-DMB as well as DAB and FM radio. Support for 3seg and 13seg ISDB-T, as well as other regional standards, is also in advanced development.

Already deployed in high-volume handsets in Asia and Europe, Imagination Technologies’ receiver IP has been licensed by several semiconductor partners including Mavrix, Future Waves, Frontier Silicon and Sharp.

Says David McBrien, VP of sales & business development, Imagination Technologies: “Imagination is delivering leading performance in the smallest die size. We’ve challenged any fixed function design to match the efficiency of our multi-standard solution: no one has come forward.”

The ENSIGMA UCC224 IP platform is unique in enabling multiple mobile TV, as well as digital and analogue radio, reception standards on a single device whilst delivering exceptionally low power dissipation. It provides the foundation of a highly-integrated mobile TV solution, reducing cost, design risk and time-to-market. Built around Imagination’s UCC (Universal Communications Core) signal processing engine, specifically developed for programmable PHY layer demodulation, the IP platform also integrates Imagination’s META MTX 32-bit embedded controller for real-time system housekeeping and low level driver abstraction to minimise host CPU overhead.

The UCC technology features a uniquely optimised balance of programmability and hardware configurability, yet occupies equivalent or less silicon area compared to hard-wired, single-standard DVB-H hardware demodulation solutions in the market, while at the same time providing the highest levels of performance in all critical areas including sensitivity, co-channel interference and Doppler. For example, UCC224 achieves 150 Hz of Doppler (DVB-H, 8 MHz, 8K FFT, ¼ Guard, 16QAM ½, F3dB) and requires only 6mW for 1-Seg ISDB-T demodulation.

The UCC224 IP platform delivers full baseband receiver functionality in a pre-verified subsystem and has been proven in successfully shipping silicon. The ability of the IP core to support all of the current key standards in mobile TV, and to add support for new standards in the future without adding silicon area, makes the platform the obvious choice for manufacturers wanting to reduce the number of different chips required to target the world mobile TV market.

Supporting Technologies
Imagination Technologies also supplies the POWERVR VXD multi-standard hardware video decoder IP cores supporting a wide range of formats including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1/WMV9, H.263 and H.264, at resolutions up to dual stream HD, enabling high performance video at low CPU overhead. This IP core family enables DVD quality video at exceptionally low power consumption, making it the ideal choice for high volume mobile receivers.

About Imagination Technologies
Imagination Technologies Group plc (FTSE:IMG) – a leader in semiconductor System on Chip Intellectual Property (SoC IP) – creates and licenses market-leading embedded graphics, video and display accelerators, multi-threaded processors and multi-standard receiver technologies. These IP solutions are complemented by dynamic and extensive developer and middleware ecosystems. Target markets include digital radio and audio; mobile phone multimedia; car navigation & driver information; personal navigation; UMPC and Mobile Internet Device (MID); digital TV & set top box; and mobile TV. Its licensees include leading semiconductor and consumer electronics companies. Imagination has corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom, with sales and R&D offices worldwide. See: www.imgtec.com.