Developers of high-end set-top boxes and video gateways can significantly reduce time to market for their new products offering rich multi-screen viewing experiences, by taking advantage of the Reference Design Kit (RDK) from Comcast, now pre-integrated with the Orly STiH416 system-on-chip from STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications and a leading provider of set-top box ICs.
By pre-integrating the RDK with its STiH416 system-on-chip for advanced HD set-top boxes, ST is enabling its customers to bring new products to market faster by saving software integration time. ST’s STiH416, announced in 2011, is the industry’s highest performing set-top box IC, and has the unique ability to support gateway, server and client applications.
“Combining the leading performance of our STiH416 with the flexibility and rich features of RDK enables our customers to create new, high-performing products extremely quickly, and allows efficient customization for specific target markets,” said Gian Luca Bertino, Executive VP, General Manager, Digital Convergence Group, STMicroelectronics.
The RDK from Comcast is a pre-integrated software bundle that creates a common framework for powering tru2way®, IP or hybrid set-top boxes and gateway devices and accelerates the development and deployment of next-generation video services. Comcast licenses the RDK to OEMs, System Integrators, SoC and software vendors as well as Multichannel Video Programming Distributors to create a community of innovators focused on bringing rich, multi-screen TV home entertainment experiences to consumers faster.
About the STiH416:
ST’s STiH416 is the first device of its type to feature the advanced dual-core ARM® Cortex™-A9 MPCore™ application processor. Combined with the ARM® Mali® 3D graphics processor, a dedicated transport processor,and a transcoder for adaptive video streaming, this creates a high-performance multimedia processing subsystem capable of:
- Decoding MVC (Multi-View Coding) 3DTV, H.264/MPEG2/4 and Internet video standards such as DivX, VC1 and Google Webm/VP8, all with outstanding Faroudja™ video image quality;
- Seamless distribution of HD content from any source to multiple screens in the home, such as TV, PC, mobile or tablet;
- Support for rich on-screen graphics such as advanced user guides and games;
- Management of software environments such as Android™, Qt, HTML5, Adobe Flash® Player and Adobe AIR to support next-generation IPTV, Over The Top (OTT) services and apps;
- H.264 video encoder up to 1080p60 HD resolution to enable any client devices in the home.
There is also a dedicated security engine meeting the latest Conditional Access (CA) and Digital Rights Management (DRM) standards. Moreover, with multiple power-management modes and advanced process technology, the STiH416 is optimized for very low power consumption-- less than 30mW in standby mode.