TS News - Thomson, BSkyB Sign Digital Pact

• from: owner-ts-news@tele-satellite.com
• Date: Tue, 04 Nov 1997 21:30:36 +0900

TELE-satellit News, 4 November 1997

Thomson, BSkyB Sign Digital Pact
  LONDON, England, 97/11/04 (TS) -- SGS-Thomson Microelectronics and
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) have announced they are collaborating to
create a development environment that will allow Set Top Box manufacturers
to commence mass production of Digital Set Top Boxes (STBs) in Spring 1998
in support of the launch of BSkyB's digital satellite TV service.

  BSkyB has selected SGS-Thomson as a partner in developing a complete
hardware and software reference platform for its digital STB requirements,
aimed at significantly reducing the time to market for STB manufacturers.
The first customers for the reference platform include the 4 set top box
manufacturers already announced by BSkyB.

  SGS-Thomson will supply chips for all of the major functions of the STB,
including the 32-bit microcontroller (ST20-TP2 and TP3), the MPEG-2 decoder
(STi3520L), the PAL/NTSC encoder (STV0119), the link/tuner interface
(STV0199), the front panel microcontroller (ST7) and will also include
support for NDS conditional access technology. In addition, the reference
design will use SGS-Thomson memory  components, including serial EEPROMs
and flash memories.

  The software for the reference design is also being developed by
SGS-Thomson, in co-operation with OpenTV Inc., and will provide support for
all of the hardware components. The company also intends to use the same
reference platform as the basis for its own Digital Terrestrial Decoder
reference design, thus assisting the achievement of interoperability
between Digital Satellite and Digital Terrestrial platforms.


(c)TELE-satellit 1997. All rights reserved.

• Prev: TS News - Eutelsat Purchases New Satellite
• Next: TS News - VH-1 Launches West Coast Feed
• Index: TS-news mailing list