HD interactive set-top box solution

After several years of rapid development, the market for standard-definition products has gradually matured in China's digital TV industry. Some consumer groups are no longer satisfied with the experience brought by standard-definition products. With the popularization of large-size flat-panel TVs, consumers have further proposed the experience demand for high-definition digital TV, which has promoted the personalized demand for digital TV set-top boxes , brought huge business opportunities for high-definition interactive digital TV set-top boxes, and will become the mainstream in the market.

High-definition market has broad prospects

The year 2010 is about to usher in the most important year for the development of the industry. The integration of three networks, the popularization of high definition, and the next generation broadcasting and television network ( NGB ) will become new development trends. The domestic high definition market has broad prospects. Starting from 2010, the high definition market will begin to enter a period of rapid development.

ALi Corp has accumulated rich experience in the field of high-definition digital set-top box SoC, with mature signal demodulation technology, advanced production technology, and low-power chip technology architecture, allowing customers to design set-top box products that do not require heat sinks, and actively supporting customers in differentiated application development. This year, ALi launched the second-generation high-definition interactive set-top box solution M3606 / M3701 series, which adopts the dual-mode interactive design concept of DVB + IP, and timely cooperates with the three-network integration policy issued by the country this year, bringing rich and colorful high-definition interactive digital TV into the home.

High-end audio/video technology for home media center applications

ALi's high-definition interactive digital set-top box chip, in addition to receiving high-definition DVB code streams, decompressing video and audio, and displaying data broadcasting and EPG information, has added VoD on-demand, intelligent middleware interaction functions, and Internet video and audio applications. The peripheral data interface also adds some commonly used PC interfaces, such as two high-speed USB 2.0 Host, SD Card interface, Ethernet interface, eSATA interface, etc. The addition of these interfaces makes the application range of set-top boxes more extensive, and it can fully realize the application of home media center. However, for developers of high-definition interactive set-top boxes, how to use high-performance set-top box chips to develop multi-functional applications and quickly bring them to market is a challenge.

ALi's second generation high-definition interactive chip solution integrates two 32-bit operators, supports 2 TS stream inputs, can process multiple streams simultaneously, and implement functions such as PVR, time shifting, and picture-in-picture. These streams can come from traditional digital TV broadcast channels or Ethernet IP channels. The M3606/M3701 series also integrates a variety of video and audio decoders, supporting MPEG2 SP/HP, MPEG4 ASP, Xvid, H.264 and other video, and MPEG-1 layer I/II, AC3, AAC, DD+ and other audio formats.

The M3606/M3701 series solutions have high-end video processing technology. The processing speed of GE and 2 high-speed CPUs greatly improves the user experience. The output of HDMI 1.3 and 1080P is an extreme visual enjoyment for consumers, and the support of MPEG4 ASP and Xvid enables consumers to enjoy the home theater experience at home at any time.

Here is a simple HD application example: DVB-S2 2-Tuner + 2-USB + CI + Ethernet. The main chip and demodulator (M3501) are provided by ALi, and tuner system manufacturers can choose Sharp/Samsung/LG. Ali can provide a reference design for the solution and a stable SDK package for system manufacturers to do in-depth development.

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SDK enables product differentiation

The SDK provided by ALi's second-generation high-definition interactive chip solution includes DVB-T/C/S2/ISDB-T front-end demodulation software and hardware reference design, Demux shunting, DVB program library, SI information analysis, EPG program table, Ethernet program library, multimedia video and audio decoding, playback and recording and other complete functional software, which improves the system development efficiency of set-top box manufacturers and allows products to be quickly promoted to the market. ALi authorized STB manufacturers can conveniently and quickly develop differentiated applications on ALi's complete and stable SDK and quickly promote their products to end customers.

ALi SKD uses open Linux OS, JVM virtual machine and middleware, and is compatible with the original ALi's own closed system. This design allows broadcasting and television operators and set-top box software to smoothly move towards the integration of three networks. The software of the ALi M3606/M3701 series chips can provide Linux open source OS or self-developed embedded RTOS. If ALi RTOS is adopted, a low-cost high-definition digital set-top box with only 64MB of memory can be realized. If Linux open source OS is selected, it is convenient for software designers to add new applications, such as Internet audio and video related applications. The performance of this series of graphics acceleration processors has become increasingly important in the application of set-top boxes. The ALi M3606/M3701 series chips integrate high-performance 2D accelerators, three-layer high-definition OSD, and Qt Widget, which makes it convenient for software personnel to design 2D/3D graphics and enrich the performance of applications, thereby achieving product differentiation.

Advanced safety technology

The M3606/M3701 series chips have complete embedded security encryption/decryption functions, including DES, AES and DVB descramblers, etc., and will support all advanced security functions. The SDK provided by ALi includes CA libraries such as Yongxin Shibo, Digital Video, Suantong, Tianbo, Irdeto, Conax, etc.; iPanel, EnReach middleware; Windows DRM 10; PlayReady digital rights management and secure video processor (SVP) standards; and supports European DVB-CI + machine card separation technology. The unique OTP design solution allows each chip to have a unique ID, and customers can implement software protection without additional hardware.

Flexible layout and design

The M3606/M3701 series solutions provide hardware designers with flexible layout and appearance design. Two high-speed USB 2.0 Hosts facilitate the design of USB interfaces on the front and rear panels of the set-top box. The dual interfaces of 16 or 32-bit DDR2 allow designers to flexibly use more cost-competitive DDR2 external memory and capacity. The QFP256 package integrates MAC, Audio DAC, and supports DDR2. Its 2-layer board design minimizes the cost of system manufacturers, and the flexible configuration design of 2USB and USB+1eSATA enables system manufacturers to quickly and economically provide solutions that meet the needs of the high-definition translation market.

This series of solutions provides an SD Card interface, which allows consumers to watch high-definition photos and multimedia files directly on the TV. The M3606/M3701 series supports the HDMI 1.3 interface standard and HDCP board protection, 1080p 60 frame display, supports conversion between various formats, and can output analog video interfaces such as YPbPr, CVBS, etc., thereby enhancing application flexibility.

Other flexible application technologies

ALi's second-generation HD interactive set-top box solution M3606/M3701 series uses 100/10Mb MAC integration, which allows network applications such as Internet Radio, Video Portal, Widget, VoD, Push Vod, etc. to have unlimited development space. Its support for Linux OS has made a leap in the versatility and portability of M3606 software, and the support for the original OS has expanded the continuity of the product. Most importantly, this series of solutions supports CI/CI+. The technical support provided by ALi enables customers to complete CI+ and PVR certification in the shortest time, helping set-top box manufacturers to enter the CI+ market at the fastest speed.

ALi has a wide range of set-top box solutions. For many years, it has closely followed the development trend of international digital TV and can provide a complete and wide-ranging digital TV set-top box product line, from satellite broadcasting and terrestrial broadcasting and cable TV broadcasting to Internet TV set-top box system solutions. It also provides a complete product line from standard definition to high definition, from basic to interactive, from low-end to mid-to-high-end. In response to the call of the Chinese government and the trend of the international market, ALi will continue to improve its technology quality and contribute to the industry in the future.