STMicroelectronics Integrates Complete DVD Playback Electronics in Two System-on-Chip Devices

World's most advanced System-on-Chip solution will further increase DVD's record-breaking consumer acceptance

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), the world's leading supplier of MPEG chips*, today announced the industry's most advanced silicon solution for DVD Playback. Building on both its long-term leadership in MPEG decoding technology and its world-class System-on-Chip (SoC) integration capabilities, ST is now implementing all of the analog and digital electronic circuitry required for DVD playback in just two chips: the STm5589 DVD Audio and Video Decoder and the STm6316 DVD Optical Disc Interface and Servo Control chip.

"DVD has already achieved the most successful consumer rollout in history and a key factor in this success has been that silicon suppliers like ST have been continuously able to integrate the highly complex electronics circuitry into a decreasing number of chips. With our new chipset, we have implemented the entire DVD playback analog and digital functions in only two chips," said Bob Krysiak, Group Vice-President and General Manager of ST's DVD Division.

Reducing the number of chips required to implement an electronic system benefits equipment manufacturers and their customers both in terms of the equipment's price/performance ratio and its reliability; fewer chips mean smaller and more cost-effective Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) and manufacturing costs, while system reliability is increased due to the reduction in the number of soldered connections between components.

The two chips in ST's new DVD Playback solution handle all of the playback functions, from the analog interface to the optical unit, through digital servo control, audio and video decoding, video encoding and a sextuple video Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC), to DVD system-level control functions. In addition, the two chips run in a Unified Memory Architecture (UMA), which means they operate together sharing just one SDRAM chip and one Flash memory chip, reducing to the minimum the total number of memory chips.

According to a recent report** from industry analyst Gartner Dataquest, the market for DVD players is expected to enjoy strong growth over the next few years. Already, DVD players have achieved the most successful consumer rollout in history: in their fourth year in the marketplace, DVD players outpaced the initial sales of CD players by 3 to 1 and VCRs by 7 to 1.

Technical Appendix

Like all equipment that uses MPEG, the technology that is almost universally employed to compress audio-video content before it is broadcast or recorded, DVD players contain two basic subsystems known as the front-end and the back-end. The front-end handles all of the functions required to extract the compressed MPEG data stream from the DVD disc, while the back-end decodes the MPEG data to recreate the original content.

The STm6316 is an enhanced cost optimization of the already popular L6315. The chip supports dual laser (with automatic detection) and twin laser, thus further reducing the system cost, and features wobble detection for both DVD-RW and DVD+RW for 1X and 1.5X speed in CLV mode. With all the required analog and digital circuitry contained in a single chip housed in a low cost TQFP 100-pin package, the STm6316 offers the world's most highly integrated front-end solution for DVD players.

The STm5589 is one of ST's third-generation of DVD back-end solutions and builds on the success of ST's popular STi5519 and STi5588. Enhancements for entry-level DVD players brought by the STm5589 are Progressive Scan, DVD-RW, including the encryption mechanism CPRM, and the emerging Windows Media Audio decoding capability. The STm5589 uses a low cost PQFP208-pin package and has a pin-out compatibility with the STi5588 enabling fast time-to-market.