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Product category: Embedded Software and Operating Systems
News Release from: Cabot Communications | Subject: Digital TV Software Suite
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 26 May 2003

Software ported to run on NEC digital TV
chips

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Cabot Communications has ported its Digital TV Software Suite onto NEC's EMMArchitecture2 range of DTV silicon devices.

Cabot Communications has ported its Digital TV Software Suite onto NEC's EMMArchitecture2 range of DTV silicon devices This collaboration provides set-top box manufacturers with a pre-integrated approach for faster interactive applications, therefore reducing the time-to-market and enabling further cost reductions

As the solution is based on the cost effective NEC uPD61120, power does not have to come at a high price.

The device is a low cost product for DTT convertors and iDTVs but is also capable of handling the demands of pay-TV set-top boxes.

The Eclipse DVB middleware stack is ported onto NEC's generic software APIs, reducing development costs and ensuring further portability to other NEC devices, such as PVR or DVD devices.

The solution also features Cabot's MHEG-5 engine, Mercator, which boasts the fastest user-interface speeds of any MHEG-5 engine implementation.

"NEC has struck the right balance of power and functionality of their low-end EMMArchitecture2 devices.

A new generation of DTT converters and set top boxes should appear in the coming months, and the ones using the NEC and Cabot combination should show a significant step forward in customers satisfaction", commented Keith Potter, Managing Director at Cabot Communications.

"There is a huge demand for low cost set-top boxes and this collaboration will give manufacturers a head-start to build the products consumers want at a price they can afford".

"The Cabot Digital TV Software Suite is an elegant and powerful combination of software which integrates smoothly with our own environment.

Our customers are impressed by the way today's applications can be handled at an affordable price but with ample power left for more demanding future applications", said Nick Russell, Digital AV Marketing Manager of NEC Electronics Europe.

"The MHEG-5 markets, currently led by UK DTT, will see significant improvements from the combination of Cabot's software together with NEC's hardware.

The power of NEC's devices will ensure users a new experience of interactive pages that are served and handled by the Mercator MHEG-5 engine more rapidly than ever before".

The NEC EMMArchitecture2 range of products features devices matched to different segments of the digital TV markets.

At the low-end it addresses standard pay-TV, retail set-top boxes, converters and iDTV.

For the mid-range, it provides chips for free/pay-TV PVR which can also be used for DVD-player/PVR combination boxes.

For the high-end, the EMMArchitecture2 extends to fully fledged DVD-recorder plus STB support in one device.

Designed on the mature NEC 0.13um process technology, the devices support the various security technologies required in the DVB world.

In addition, NEC supplies a set of generic software APIs and device-specific extensions to make software development straightforward.

NEC also offers a wide range of connection devices, such as USB2 and IEEE1394 and further TV technologies, such as standalone MPEG2 encoders and 3D YC separators.

The Cabot Digital TV Software Suite is a modular, scalable and customisable platform consisting of the Eclipse DVB middleware, Mercator MHEG-5 engine and the Callisto over-air-download module for upgrading receivers in the field.

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