Siano Mobile Silicon has announced the SMS1186 CMMB TV receiver chip, a drop in replacement to its SMS1180, which adds on-chip decoding support for Pay-TV services which are emerging in the China market.
The SMS1186 opens up new design and market opportunities for mobile phone makers, as well as manufacturers of cellular-connected devices such as netbooks and portable navigation devices (PNDs), according to Siano.
Highlights of the SMS1186 are a sensitivity of -100dBm and high noise immunity, said Siano. In addition, the chip includes secure "root-of-trust" hardware (known as UAM) that adheres to the data security requirements China-based telco, China Mobile, meaning devices equipped with the SMS1186 will be able to access not only free-to-air CMMB broadcasts, but also pay-TV services such as those transmitted over China Mobile's TD-SCDMA 3G cellular network.
Siano noted that CMMB is already available in 186 major cities in China, with plans to extend coverage to 300 by the end of 2009. In addition, the chipmaker cited Lu Dongfeng, vice-president of Datang Telecom Technology, as saying that China plans to have 100 million TD-SCDMA subscribers by the end of 2011.
Roy Oren, Siano's CTO explained, "Siano's SMS1186 'buries' the entire conditional access flow inside one closed chip – the RF signal is received from the antenna on one end, and outputs a clear (non-encrypted) CMMB bit-stream on the other end. This is unlike competing approaches, which let the data decryption (descrambling) run on the host CPU or the 3G baseband processor, which makes the system more prone to hacking."
Wei Wang, General Manager of Siano China added, "With the SMS1186, end users that upgrade their terminals from GSM to TD-SCDMA will be able to keep their existing SIM cards by simply placing them in their new terminals, and immediately enjoy advanced TD-SCDMA and CMMB services."
The SMS1186 is identical in both package and size to its predecessor chip allowing CMMB device makers a smooth transition from free-to-air to Pay-TV CMMB devices, at practically zero design cycle, highlighted Siano. The SMS1186 mainly targets mobile phones and small data cards, while another flavor, the SMS1188, is available in a slightly larger package targeting netbooks, notebooks, and similar devices. Several leading mobile phone makers already plan to launch products incorporating the SMS1186 in the next few months, said Siano. The SMS1186 Evaluation Kit (EVK) is available to select customers now and in high-volumes during the second half of August 2009.
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