New DTV PC Reference

Electronic News, Nov 23, 1998

Design From Philips

Sunnyvale, Calif.--Philips' Coney board, which debuted last week at Comdex, is a new PCI plug-in card enabling hardware manufacturers to simplify PCI-based designs and supply ATSC/NTSC Signals to Multimedia PCs.

The board's debut is timely, since many major broadcasters have been mandated to go Digital this month. As digital broadcasts begin, the availability of extra bandwidth over the Vertical Blanking Interval (describe) means that owners of PCs equipped with an off-air antenna and boards like the Coney Board in areas where DTV is already under way will be able to access multimedia content provided by the networks. Components like this could also accelerate the convergence of the TV and PC, particularly in light of the exorbitant prices of digital television sets.

The board, which combines an advanced TV front-end tuner with desktop video ICs, is already being used by Intel Corp. in its DTV broadcast trials. When combined with Intel's Pentium II processors and an accelerated graphicsport, the reference design allows users to tune into DTV broadcasts and automatically download data and video via their PC, says Philips.

"Intel believes that the Philips design will enable owners of high-end Intel Architecture-based PCs to economically add DTV functionality by using the Intel processor to decode the ATSC signal in software," said Mike Richmond, business unit manager in Intel's Broadcast Products Division. "PCs will play a significant role as a key platform for DTV. The Philips reference design gives PCs, OEMs and after-market suppliers an early entry into the emerging DTV market, and makes low-cost DTV on PCs a practical reality for consumers."

At the core of the Coney Board is Philips' ATSC Digital TV front-end hardware and desktop video architecture. Philips says that the ICs on its reference board are specifically designed for easy integration, so that designers can focus on product differentiation. Also integrated into its Reference Design are front-end tuners, channel decoders, video capture and imaging ICs.

The company's Vestigial Side-Band chipset is comprised of the TDA9829T, or TDA9819 IF down converters, the TDA8763 A/D converter and the TDA8960 8-VSB integrated demodulator and decoder. It can process terrestrial signals and convert them to the stage of a digital MPEG-2 Transport Stream which, in turn, it can be used in a PC, TV or hybrid set-top box.

The board's front-end uses a Philips TD1536 multi-format tuner module and a single-chip IF stage (TDA9819), which can handle both VSB modulated signals for ATSC broadcast reception and analog NTSC terrestrial and cable signals.

Separate outputs from the IF stage feed digital VSB signals to an ADC converter, which are, in turn, handled by the single-chip TDA8960 VSB demodulator/decoder. At the same time, analog signals go to the SAA7113, the world's first 9-bit single-chip multi-standard video capture device according to Philips. The IC can also accept video inputs from separate external sources, in CVBS or S-video format, via connectors on the board. A TDA9851 BTSC sound decoder handles stereo sound processing, and external audio inputs can also be digitized. The SAA7146A Media Streaming Engine interfaces the other ICs to the PCI-bus, carrying the MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS) from the VSB decoder, the ITU-R 656 representation of the analog NTSC signal, video from the external inputs and the digital audio signals.

The board is compatible with all 18 ATSC formats, ATVEF and DASE data formats. The ATSC transport stream demultiplexing, MPEG2 HL decoding and decoding of broadcast data services are performed on the host using combinations of hardware and/or software, depending on the application. A license is available, royalty free, from Philips Semiconductors to use the PCB layout (Gerber) files as well as the original design schematics.