New Samsung chip takes cellphone digital TV worldwide
updated 12:20 pm EDT, Wed June 27, 2007
Samsung Mobile TV Chip
Samsung today rolled out a new chipset it hopes will break the barriers for over-the-air digital TV. A combination channel decoder and RF tuner have been made on a smaller, 65 nanometer process that lets them support more than one digital TV standard at once. The technology would let companies using the chip build true world handhelds: Europe's DVB-H (handheld) and DVB-T (terrestrial) video formats would work on the same chip that supports Korea's DMB, Samsung notes.
The chip is also general-purpose and could be adapter to different or newer standards as they arrive, including in the US. Its reception is quick enough to display a clean signal on a train or other fast-moving vehicles where the speed might disrupt the image, according to the company.
While products using the new chip combination have yet to be announced, Samsung is delivering test versions now and hopes to produce large numbers of them by the fall, soon afterwards letting companies produce cellphones, GPS units, and media players with the enhanced digital TV as a feature.
