January 28, 2014, Seoul – STMicroelectronics (ST), a global semiconductor company contributing to customers across various electronic applications and a leading provider of High Definition (HD) and Ultra HD (UHD) set-top box ICs, has unveiled STi8K™, an innovative architecture suitable for future system-on-chip (SoCs) for realizing the 'digital home'.

The STi8K™ SoC is based on the latest ARMv8-A core and, when combined with the Cannes (Cannes/STiH3 (FHD/UHD HEVC Client-Box)), Monaco (Monaco/STiH4 (FHD/UHD HEVC Server/Gateway)), and Alicante (Alicante/STiD12 (DOCSIS®)) families, not only further enhances performance but also enables seamless industrial expansion from 32-bit to 64-bit computing.

"The transition from 32-bit to 64-bit computing in the consumer industry began in the mobile market," said Gian Luca Bertino, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Digital Convergence Group at ST. "New cutting-edge technologies, such as DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) 3.1 for cable modems and 10-bit High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) with full functionality at 60 frames per second UHD, will bring the same winds of change to the digital home market. By launching the Cannes, Monaco, and Alicante product families, we have shortened time-to-market and established a solid foundation for future competitiveness." “The newly introduced STi8K architecture is the next step in the evolution of our successful product family and will enable 64-bit computing to become a ‘digital home,’” he said.

ST’s 28nm Fully Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (FD-SOI) technology and the STi8K™ architecture, optimized for manufacturing process miniaturization, enable increased data throughput, expanded memory addressing, and the utilization of power-saving features of the latest ARM® Cortex™-A53 and Cortex™-A57 64-bit processor technologies. By combining excellent energy efficiency with superior performance and reliability, it satisfies end-user and eco-friendly design requirements, such as the U.S. Energy Star and the European Union’s EuP (Energy using Products) directives.

Tom Cronk, Senior Vice President of ARM Processor Business Unit, said, "We share ST's vision for the digital home market. The combination of ultra-high bandwidth home network access systems with DOCSIS 3.1 technology and full-color UHD applications will mark a major turning point in home entertainment. Our long-standing partnership with ST, including recent integration of the latest 64-bit processors and cross-shareholdings in ecosystem development through software like Linaro, is a key factor in enabling more immersive media experiences in a more advanced way."

ST's architecture includes management features such as the industry's only Faroudja® transcoding, 8 HD streams, and advanced hardware-assisted networking, which will further accelerate the delivery of multimedia content required by future satellite, cable, and hybrid home servers and gateways.

In addition, UHD with up to 60 frames per second is supported, including the wide gamut and 10-bit color required by the ITU-R Recommendation BT.2020, and high-performance full-frame-rate graphics based on OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenGL ES 3.0 standards are supported, so users can enjoy a digital viewing experience in UHD with vivid realism in sports or games, and operator branding is possible in 4K resolution.

STi8K™ adopts the newly defined HDMI 2.0 and provides fast connectivity with full-color and full-frame-rate UHD screens, along with the latest High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) 2.2 security capable of processing data at up to 6Gbps per channel and DisplayPort v1.2.

Bertino stated, “The recently launched Cannes, Monaco, and Alicante product lines are growing with strong momentum and are playing a significant role in leading ST to become a major player in UHD and HEVC technology,” adding, “Customers who adopt these product lines can secure the advantage of reduced time for future ‘digital home’ product launches.”

At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, ST invited specific customers to a private hotel suite to conduct a large-scale demonstration of its related technologies and digital home SoCs. In addition, together with major HEVC encoder suppliers in the market, it demonstrated the interoperability of DOCSIS home gateways, cable modems, and Full HD and UHD set-top boxes.