Hoping to make further inroads with Chinese OEMs, Frontier Silicon Ltd. and SigmaTel Inc. are linking up to offer a combined digital audio broadcasting, FM and MP3 player platform for portable devices.
The partnership was announced last week, days before Beijing Radio lit up a new network for digital audio broadcast, part of China's overall push to roll out digital audio and video services before the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Frontier will contribute its Naples FS 2011 triband DAB/FM digital radio module, which includes the Apollo RF front end and Chorus DAB baseband processor. SigmaTel will offer its STMP3500 series MP3 processor and portable audio system-on-chip. Both devices have been available as separate modules, and now will come integrated into Atlas 2, a 55 x 60 x 6.5-mm reference design that includes a keyboard and LCD.
Low-priced, simple MP3 players are wildly popular in China, but DAB is still in its early stages. The Atlas will enable Chinese OEMs with little RF integration experience to begin designing products. Until now, that had been a hurdle, especially in handheld devices. With the bar lowered, dozens of companies may decide to enter the market, driving prices down on midrange MP3/DAB platforms, which have typically sold for $250.
In June, China approved DAB as a standard (GY/T 214-2006) and said it will soon officially allocate spectrum in VHF Band III (174 MHz to 239 MHz) or the L Band (1,450 MHz to 1,495 MHz). Several cities in China are already testing DAB and some are also using DAB-based terrestrial-digital multimedia broadcasting, a South Korean technology, for video trials. Beijing Radio turned its signal, and will offer 12 radio stations and trial broadcasts of two TV channels, Beijing TV 1 and CCTV 1.
Source:佚名