LSI Logic DVD-R Processor Hits CES - Semiconductors - LSI Logic DiMeNsion 8600

Electronic News, Jan 7, 2002 by Gale Morrison

Proving out its strategy behind the 2001 acquisition of C-Cube Microsystems for a cool $850 million, LSI Logic will show off a highly sophisticated single-chip DVD recorder system processor today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

C-Cube became the Broadband Entertainment division of LSI Logic and, judging by the introduction the company can make this week, LSI whole-heartedly supported this particular development project. The chip is being fabbed at an undisclosed foundry, said Jim Chase, marketing manager for Broadband Entertainment at LSI. Today's introduction is the DiMeNsion 8600, the first chip based on the C-Cube-engineered DoMiNo architecture, which C-Cube unveiled at last year's CES a few short months before it and LSI struck their buyout deal.

Chase said the pieces are slowly shifting into place for recordable DVD to be the next big thing in consumer electronics. Unfortunately though, OEMs have not come together on a format--there's DVD-R DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM--and the dearth of suppliers for certain components has kept prices at around $1,000, too high for good volume sales. LSI and C-Cube have therefore had to tread very carefully to ensure their system processor could work in all three formats, which Chase says it does.

The level of integration in the 8600 is very impressive. Dual Sparcbased host processors and audio and video DSPs are integrated as well as a single memory architecture that integrates six chips into one, Chase said. Also, the analog intermediate frequency (IF) interfaces are on board, perhaps the trickiest design feat of the part.

This integration should greatly help bring down the price-point for the recorders, said Michelle Abraham, senior analyst at market researcher Cahners In-Stat Group. (Cahners In-Stat Group is owned by Cahners Business Information, the parent company of Electronic News.) "A single-chip processor such as the DiMeNsion 8600 provides the industry an affordable solution that will allow a new wave of DVD recorders to be offered at very attractive prices in time for Christmas of 2002," she said. Abraham expects the DVD recorder market to approach 3 million units in 2003 and getup over 13 million units in 2005.

Chase said that Japanese QEMs -- Pioneer, Panasonic, Toshiba and Sony, in a joint venture with Philips -- are expanding their presence in the market aggressively right now. "A year ago they came out at $2,000 and now, already, you can find them for $800," he said.

The limiting factor right now, he said, is the "loader," the DVD drive and optics, which costs the OEM between $240 and $260. He expects the concurrent PCDVD-R market to help drive that cost down.

LSI has announced a partnership with Pioneer for the MPEG-2 codecs in its DVD-R/RW systems. Chase could not disclose any relationships particular to the 8600, though.

Chase said he expects consolidation among the three formats for recordable DVD. A likely candidate to drop off would be DVD-RAM. "DVD-RAM, in its current architecture, does not support backward compatibility [with the other formats]," Chase said. "Everybody is working toward more features and backward compatibility."

The DMN-8600 is provided in a single 308-pin BGA package and is priced at $30 in high volume. Samples are available now with production quantities available in the second quarter of 2002.

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