STMicroelectronics new chips for 3D set-top boxes

STMicroelectronics has announced details of a new generation of decoder chips that will enable hybrid Internet/broadcast-TV set-top boxes (STBs) featured to deliver enhanced user experiences and allow consumers to experience broadcast, Internet or personal content on the TV, intuitively and at any time. The STi7108 joins ST's successful STi710x video decoders, and also provide features to support 3D graphics user controls, 3D TV, content protection, and connections to external devices.

The new STi7108 has dual ST40-300 CPU host processors linked to a 256K L2 cache giving up to 2000 DMIPS performance and a total of 4000 DMIPS for flexible support of demanding AV, security and connectively applications. A 3D graphics engine enables a new class of user interfaces, supports innovations such as 3D Electronic Program Guide (EPG), and enables advanced Internet content and high-performance gaming on the STB. It is the first set-top box IC in the market to combine 3D graphics, Ethernet, USB and e-SATA interfaces to connect Internet devices, DVR storage or external Flash or hard-disk (HDD) drives.

The STi7108 utilizes the ARM® Mali-400(TM) graphics processor, the only embedded graphics processor which has demonstrated compliance with the Khronos OpenGL ES 2.0 specifications at HD resolutions, to deliver a powerful 3D experience.