HDTV and TV tuner users rejoice – smaller USB designs will be on their way! Xceive Corporation and Trident Microsystems have announced a partnership to design what they call “the highest integrated USB Bus-powered TV reference board”. Their aim is to design three different versions that will address three different market segments – analog tuner needs, hybrid DVB-T needs, and hybrid ATSC needs.

Through their partnetship, the typical number of chips needed to create your typical analog USB TV tuner will drop from 4 to 2. What this basically means is – USB powered TV tuners will be smaller and cheaper over time. Pretty exciting stuff. The two companies will create these reference boards for other OEM’s to develop products with.

[Xceive Corporate Homepage]

[Trident Microsystems Homepage]

 

Xceive and Trident Microsystems Partner to Deliver The Highest Integrated USB Bus-Powered TV Tuner

SANTA CLARA, Calif. & SHENZHEN, China –(Business Wire)– Oct. 12, 2006 Xceive Corporation, developer of the world’s first fully integrated multi-standard RF-to-baseband transceiver ICs (semiconductor) for TVs, PC TVs and set-top boxes, today announced its partnership with Trident Microsystems to design the highest integrated USB Bus-powered TV reference board. Three different versions have been developed to address the analog only, hybrid DVB-T, and hybrid ATSC markets.

The outcome of the design partnership will be a reduction in chip count by half for both analog and hybrid USB designs. Typical analog USB TV tuners require a minimum of four chips, which include the tuner, USB interface, audio and video decoder. With the Xceive-Trident partnership, the number of chips is reduced to two and powered only by the USB port. For hybrid (analog and digital tuning capabilities) USB TV tuners the typical number of chips is cut in half to three chips. Thus, this reference design board enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to produce smaller, more cost-effective TV products that meet global standards including analog TV stereo sound and FM radio capabilities.

“Trident welcomed the opportunity to partner with Xceive because Xceive’s tuner IC is the highest integrated solution on the market today and the only such chip to be ISF-certified,” said James Fan, director of VCT, Trident. “We are pleased to partner with Xceive to provide this high-performance, USB TV dongle to customers who seek the capabilities of this level of technology.”

The high-performance USB TV tuner includes Xceive’s silicon tuners – XC3028 and XC2028. These IC tuners support all worldwide analog TV, digital TV terrestrial and cable signal standards. Further, Xceive’s tuner is the only tuner that has received the ISF certification from the Image Science Foundation Research Lab.

This reference design also will feature Trident’s TM6010, a USB AV decoder that provides high-quality, cost-effective solutions for both analog and digital TV. The TM6010 is the first single chip USB AV decoder which support global analog TV audio standards for the USB TV application.

“We are pleased to have created another industry first with this USB bus-powered TV tuner that includes TV Stereo Sound,” said Alvin Wong, vice president of marketing, Xceive. “Xceive’s tuner is the highest integrated tuner in the world. That, combined with Trident’s highest integrated USB A/V decoder, provides a very powerful offering, which we are pleased to bring to market.”

About Xceive Corporation

Venture-backed Xceive(R) Corporation, headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., enables fast, high-quality TV signal reception in any consumer electronics device worldwide. First to market with a one-design-fits-all-TV-standards analog and digital single chip design, Xceive’s QuickTune(R) RF-to-baseband single integrated circuit (IC) TV tuners provide superior performance, low power, and smaller form factor for the development of advanced TV and PC-TV applications. Xceive’s universal RF-to-baseband analog – and breakthrough RF-to-baseband analog and digital – TV tuner ICs reduce the need for OEMs to maintain multiple inventories in order to service a global market. Visit http://www.xceive.com, e-mail info@xceive.com, call 408-486-5610 or fax 408-486-5615 for more information.

TRADEMARKS: Xceive ClearView, Quick-TuneXC2028 and XC3028 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Xceive Corporation.

About Trident Microsystems

Founded in 1987, Trident Microsystems, Inc. designs, develops and markets digital television System-on-chip (SOC) solutions for the rapidly growing consumer electronic markets in digital flat CRT TV, LCD TV, PDP TV, Micro Display Projection TV, AV Notebook PC, and especially High Definition TV (HDTV). With headquarter in Sunnyvale, California, the company also has sales, support, and development centers in Shanghai, China; Shenzhen, China; and Tokyo, Japan. The company trades on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol “TRID.” For further information please visit http://www.tridentmicro.com.

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