Zilog's new controllers target consumer market

Electronic News, Feb 21, 1994 by Jim DeTar

CAMPBELL, CALIF.--Zilog, Inc., is planning to barrage the consumer market with new products this year, including a new feature-rich family of controllers for the digital answering machine market and a new television controller for interactive TV program guides.

Having recently previewed the new products at the Consumer Electronics Show, Zilog's upcoming family of controllers will target digital answering machine and combination telephone/answering machine markets.

Currently dubbed the Models Z80167, -168 and -169, the enhanced controllers will include a DSP capable of between 6,000 and 8,000 words, Zilog's version of the sub-band PEGRA algorithm, and an increase in internal speed to 24MHz from the 20MHz speed of the company's previous generation digital answering machine controllers.

"The key is increasing the quality level as the compression rate is lowered," said Philip Levine, tactical marketing manager, Consumer Business Unit. Zilog is targeting the market for digital answering machines, as well as combination telephone/digital answering machine combinations.

"We expect to sell NMOS 8-bit controllers for dual-answering machines by the millions," Mr. Levine said. "1994 is the year of the digital answering machine. We estimate 35 to 40 percent of answering machines will be digital by the end of the year. Sales will amount to 16.5 million units in the U.S. and double that worldwide." Those numbers represent a significant increase from last year, he added. "In 1993, 10 to 15 percent of all answering machines sold were digital.

"Eventually, there will be products combining the speakerphone, cordless phone and answering machine. DSP controllers will enable them to merge," Mr. Levine said. He noted that the U.S. is playing catch-up in the area of digital answering machines. "Europe has had combination units for years."

The Model 167 will include 24K of ROM with LPC code. The Model 168 will be ROM-less and the Model 169 will include 32K of ROM that will allow more features such as voice menus. Zilog is providing a platform to customers to develop such devices--the DTAD (digitial telephone answering device) implementation kit.

"In the Far East, they can go from concept to design in a couple of months," Mr. Levine said. "They use audio RAMs (ARAMs) costing about $4.50 each, which is $8 to $10 less than DRAMs. Vendors can put together a system using a single-chip DSP/microcontroller, plus an ARAM and CODEC."

Zilog's Models 187, 168 and 169 controlles are said to be in the fab now and are expected to be formally introduced in late February or early March. Expect to see more enhanced DSP cores introduced later this year, the company said.

At the same time, Zilog is assaulting the TV controller market by partnering with a Fremont, Calif.-based company, StarSight, to offer a cost-effective interactive TV program guide that features one-button VCR record capability.

In January, Zilog introduced the Z869300 digital TV controller family and revealed an agreement with StarSight under which Zilog will provide the TV, cable converter and VCR chip technology for the StarSight interactive TV programming guide for TV viewers.

Customers with StarSight-equipped sets will be able to view up to seven days of TV program schedule information on-screen by channel and theme, tune by program title, customize channel set-up and implement one-button VCR recording.

Under terms of the agreement, Zilog's new Z89300 TV controller series implements the television and VCR chip technology that supports StarSights's proprietary database processor technology.

Ed Sack, Zilog's president and CEO, said at the time the joint effort was announced, "We were impressed with the capabilities of the StarSight television and VCR programming from the first day we saw it and this view has been reinforced by joint marketing presentations to many of the world's leading TV, VCR and cable converter producers."

StarSight provides information on program selection. Using the guide's on-line database, viewers can search for program selections by name, theme category (for example sports or arts) and even theme subcategories (football or dancing). Subscribers can record a feature with the touch of a button.

Peter J. Haywood, Zilog's technical marketing manager, Consumer Business Unit, said last week that Zilog is the primary IC vendor for StarSight technology.

As part of the StarSight effort, Zilog is preparing to roll out a new chip, the Zilog 86150, a StarSight database processor. In televisions equipped with StarSight, Zilog's 89300 TV controller with output data to the Zilog Z86150. The company claims this will provide added value to manufacturers because it replaces existing TV controller that are not StarSight equipped with a new solution which Zilog says will cost only $1 or $2 more than existing TV controllers.

"'It is a part of the emerging information superhighway. It is a first step toward interactive TV," Mr. Haywood said. "The StarSight solution could be included in set-top boxes. Zilog and StarSight are approaching manufacturers of television equipment together. We see a 100,000 to 400,000-unit sales opportunity in the next year or two."