Micronas Introduces Complete Software Stack for Digital STB Ready for Deployment

Fully integrated digital TV middleware jump-starts digital STB development

IFA 2005, Berlin, Germany- September 2, 2005 - Micronas today announced the successful porting of LogiWays' Magello digital TV middleware to the Micronas MDE 95xyD set-top box (STB) chip in cooperation with Nagravision, a world leader for conditional access (CA) systems. As a result, Micronas now offers a complete hardware/software solution enabling fast and easy market access.

As a fully integrated Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB)-compliant system MPEG-2 decoder chip, the MDE 95xyD serves a multitude of applications ranging from zapping-only free-to-air (public) STBs to full-featured personal video recorder (PVR) boxes. With the MDE 95xyD family and the recently introduced fourth generation of COFDM demodulator ICs, DRX 397xD, Micronas offers a complete system solution for the expanding DVB-T markets.

Magello is highly customizable digital TV middleware. It is a market-proven solution already deployed in DVB markets such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Magello supports several CA systems, including all Nagravision's CA systems, opening an even wider range of possible pay-TV applications for the MDE 95xyD family, including secure push-VOD and secure storage off-the-shelf solutions.

"The exciting thing about the combination of LogiWay's Magello with the MDE 95xyD family is its versatility", said Reinhard Steffens, Director System Marketing Set-Top Box at Micronas. "The MDE 95xyD decoder family covers a wide range of STB and iDTV consumer devices; Magello is the enabler for our customers to have the same flexibility in the software running in the box. As a result, their STB designs can be targeted to the specific hardware and software requirements of a market segment at optimal economics."

"Making Magello available on the Micronas MDED platform opens interesting and new applications to us", said Christophe Van Der Werf, Vice President Sales & Marketing at LogiWays. "Micronas is the right partner with a focused product portfolio and with a key position in the consumer electronics industry."

The Magello middleware ported on the MDE 95xyD results in a ready-for-deployment hardware and software solution for manufacturers targeting both free-to-air and pay-TV markets. The fact that both Micronas' MDE95xyD and Magello are Nagravision "certification ready" ensures a significant time-to-market advantage for Nagravision CA pay-TV applications.

Micronas will showcase a free-to-air STB reference design based on MDE 95xyD and Magello in Berlin during the IFA (International Broadcast Exhibition) in September 2005. It will be the first in a series of reference designs licensable to OEMs and addressing different implementation requirements and CA security levels as well as box feature sets.

About the MDE 95xyD decoder family

The new system-on-chip platform of the MDE 95xyD integrates a MIPS®-compatible 32-Bit processor with a configurable unified memory interface. This processor is supported by a transport stream interface unit with both parallel and serial inputs, a transport stream demultiplexer, an embedded DVB descrambler, and MPEG-2 audio/video decoders. A dedicated graphic accelerator engine supports the CPU. A variety of different interfaces, including ATA for hard disk connection, UART for modem support and an interface for CI modules turn the MDE 95xyD series into a scalable all-in-one solution for free-to-air, pay-TV and PVR STBs. IDTV applications based on the MDE 95xyD family benefit from a version, which supports an RGB digital interface and a progressive/double scan OSD output utilizing Micronas' extensive experience in CRT and FPD TV circuit design.

About LogiWays

LogiWays is a French company specialized in the development and integration of middleware and automatic testing tools for the global digital TV environment. Under the Magello brand name, LogiWays offers software modules for the control and personalization of the functionalities of digital television equipment, such as electronic program guides, channel lists, record programming applications, and parental control applications. The Magello solutions are installed in both the decoders and the television sets.