Imagination Technologies Extends Low-Power Receiver IP Platform

Adds NorDig DVB-T to ISDB-T, DVB-H & T-DMB Capable Multi-standard Receiver

June 5, 2008 -- Imagination Technologies, a leader in system-on-chip Intellectual Property (SoC IP), announced today that it has added NorDig-Unified 1.0.3.compliant DVB-T to its licensable receiver IP platform family.

With the addition of support for NorDig, the stringent Digital Television platform test specification, ENSIGMA UCCP230 supports the widest range of standards available on a single receiver platform and offers the best balance of functionality, performance and size.

Says David McBrien, VP sales, Imagination Technologies: "With support for NorDig we can deliver a DVB-T solution capable of passing the most rigorous use-case tests, alongside high-doppler DVB-H. This perfectly complements UCCP230's wide range of terrestrial TV, mobile TV and radio standards. As well as adding wider DVB-T content options to mobile TV devices the addition of Nordig support to UCCP230’s existing ISDB-T full-seg TV capabilities makes it the ideal choice for highly integrated TVs and STBs."

The ENSIGMA UCCP230 multi-standard receiver IP platform requires only the same silicon area as typical single standard solutions. By supporting multiple standards on the same IP platform Imagination’s licensing partners are significantly reducing the total cost of ownership for the addition of multi-standard broadcast receiver capabilities on mobile devices, TVs and STBs.

Imagination, along with many key industry players, believes that a broad combination of digital terrestrial TV, mobile TV and radio reception support is essential to creating compelling and cost-efficient SoCs for receiver applications.

Standards supported by UCCP230 include: DVB-T, DVB-H, T-DMB, 1/3/full-seg ISDB-T, DAB, DAB+, and FM with RDS. Support for other regional standards is also in advanced development.

Already deployed in high-volume products in Asia and Europe, Imagination Technologies’ receiver IP has been licensed by a number of semiconductor partners.

Inside UCCP230
The ENSIGMA UCCP230 IP platform is unique in enabling multiple mobile TV as well as terrestrial digital and analogue TV and radio reception standards on a single device whilst delivering exceptionally low power dissipation. It provides the foundation of a highly-integrated mobile media receiver 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. At the same time it provides the highest levels of performance in all critical areas including sensitivity, co-channel interference and Doppler.

The ENSIGMA UCCP230 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 platform to support all of the current key standards in radio and terrestrial and 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, or enter new territories.

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; personal media players (PMP); in-car navigation and driver information; personal navigation devices (PND); Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) and Mobile Internet Device (MID); digital TV & set-top box; and mobile TV. Its licensees include leading semiconductor and consumer electronics companies, as well as innovative leading edge start-up and fabless semiconductor companies. Imagination has corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom, with sales and R&D offices worldwide. See: www.imgtec.com.