Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 7, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications and a top supplier of System-on-Chip (SoC) ICs for set-top boxes and home gateways, has revealed that its STiH237 System-on-Chip (SoC) will be powering the latest generation of High-Definition (HD), non-PVR set-top boxes currently under development by MultiChoice, South Africa's leading pay-TV operator.
The STiH237, part of ST's proven STiH207 family, features a DVB-S2 demodulator, high-performance ST40 processing core with interface to low-cost DDR3 memory, H264/MPEG2/VC-1/AVS video decoder, and connectivity including HDMI1.4, USB2.0 and Ethernet. Ideal for building competitively priced satellite zapper boxes with a small footprint, it delivers best-in-class performance with superior processing and high audio/video quality, enabling operators to add new services quickly and cost-effectively.
"The STiH237 SoC is clearly the right choice for our latest generation of set-top boxes," said Gerdus van Eeden, CEO of Broadcast Technology at MultiChoice. "ST offered a chipset with the right power, versatility and features to meet our market needs. It was also offered at a price that made the important transition from SD MPEG 2 to HD MPEG 4 on our DTH zappers affordable to our business."
"This is an important design win for ST. MultiChoice is South Africa's leading pay-TV service provider, and has a distinguished heritage as one of the first such operators to launch outside the US," said Alessandro Messi, Vice President and General Manager, South, East Europe and Emerging Market Sales Unit, STMicroelectronics. "The number of customers placing their trust in our STiH207 family continues to grow around the world, confirming the devices' ability to meet operators' needs in a variety of developed and emerging markets."
MultiChoice is using an advanced conditional access (CA) security scheme and middleware in its new set-top boxes, leveraging the STiH237's broad ecosystem that supports a wide range of third-party security and software technologies. This allows customers to determine their preferred content protection, core set-top box functionality, and user-interface look and feel. Moreover, all devices in the STiH207 range, specifically the STiH207, STiH237, STiH239, STiH273 and STiH223 are ball-out and software compatible, enabling faster time-to-market and reduced hardware costs. In addition, compatibility with decoder ICs, such as the STi7111, allows developers to upgrade legacy equipment designs.
About MultiChoice
Some three decades ago, M-Net launched South Africa's first pay-TV station (at that stage, the only direct-to-home digital satellite broadcaster outside of the United States). M-Net's subscriber management arm broke off to form the parent company - MultiChoice - and this corporation now includes subsidiary businesses such as DStv, MWEB and SuperSport.
MultiChoice's influence in the South African market extends beyond the scope of its core businesses. Through corporate social investment, the company actively participates in grass roots level transformation and, through the power of technology, enables individuals and communities to become self-enabling.
About STMicroelectronics
ST is a global leader in the semiconductor market serving customers across the spectrum of sense and power and automotive products and embedded processing solutions. From energy management and savings to trust and data security, from healthcare and wellness to smart consumer devices, in the home, car and office, at work and at play, ST is found everywhere microelectronics make a positive and innovative contribution to people's life. By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented.
In 2012, the Company's net revenues were $8.49 billion. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.
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STMicro STB Design Win with MultiChoice http://hugin.info/152740/R/1753069/591224.pdf
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