ATI presents Xilleon 240 chip for digital TVs

ATI today announced the Xilleon(TM) 240, a highly-integrated TV-on-Chip designed to enable cost-effective digital television (DTV) sets for the North American and Korean markets. Xilleon 240 delivers both industry leading digital signal reception and high-quality image processing display functionality required for a complete DTV solution.

The new chip from ATI's Digital TV Group is the first to integrate all the major components necessary for manufacturers to build digital integrated televisions at lower costs and in advance of the fast approaching DTV requirements. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires that 50 per cent of all 25-inch to 36-inch TVs include digital tuners by July 1, 2005 and 100 per cent of this same segment by March 1, 2006.

"TV manufacturers have an urgent need for solutions that enable them to cost-effectively add DTV reception to their products," said Daniel Eiref, Director of Marketing, DTV Group, ATI Technologies Inc. "Xilleon 240 integrates all the key technologies necessary for TV manufacturers to implement a digital LCD, rear projection, or CRT television with reduced cost and no compromise in performance. ATI is driving the DTV market so consumers can enjoy the best digital television has to offer."

The Xilleon 240 TV-On-Chip includes a powerful MIPS(R) CPU (central processing unit), a Digital Front End capable of demodulating and decoding 8VSB for ATSC terrestrial broadcasts or 64/256 QAM for digital cable (including a Forward Data Channel demodulator for OpenCable applications), an HD/SD capable MPEG video and audio decoder, an NTSC video decoder featuring a 3D comb filter, a video scaler and deinterlacer, and other image processing features. Xilleon 240 includes advanced deinterlacing technology that reduces artifacts such as jagged lines and delivers the highest quality digital image processing.

Xilleon 240 samples and reference designs, including ATI's CARD, are available now to qualified customers in advance of volume shipment this fall. ATI's CARD (Customer Application Ready Design) is a highly scalable and complete software stack and reference platform that enables high-definition television (HDTV) manufacturers to produce ATSC or Digital Cable Ready televisions (for CableCARD solutions) with minimum investment in time and resources.