April 22, 2014, Seoul – STMicroelectronics (ST), a global semiconductor company contributing to customers across various electronic applications, announced a 'reference design' to accelerate the adoption of next-generation Ultra HD set-top boxes (STBs) and gateways to satellite pay TV operators worldwide, in partnership with MaxLinear (MaxLinear), a leading provider of integrated radio frequency (RF) and mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) for broadband communications applications.

This reference design accelerates the development of OEMs' next-generation set-top boxes (STBs) and gateways, enabling satellite operators to deliver Ultra HD content using the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265) standard. Furthermore, this advanced design, combining next-generation technologies from ST and MaxLinear, enables the highest level of support for satellite operator services by implementing multi-decoding, multi-channel PVR (personal video recorder), VOD (video-on-demand), multi-transcoding for streaming to second-screen clients, and cutting-edge graphics while maintaining extremely low power consumption.

This reference design utilizes ST’s pin-compatible STiH312 ‘Cannes’ and STiH412 ‘Monaco’ set-top box system-on-chip (SoC) decoders with MaxLinear’s best-in-class MxL5xx family of satellite FSC™ (Full-Spectrum Capture™) receiver chips. This platform supports real-time transcoding of displays and numerous HD streams simultaneously, and provides broad support for a full array of end products ranging from HD HEVC-ready set-top boxes with multi-channel decoding to high-end servers with 4K Ultra HD resolution and HEVC decoding.

Both chip families are pin-compatible, allowing for scalability from 4 to 8 channels in these reference designs, and are flexible enough to support Full HD or 4K Ultra HD with or without transcoding. This platform can also be applied to MSOs by utilizing the MxL2xx family of pin-compatible cable FSC multi-channel receiver chips.

Satellite operators can support various multi-channel features with an FSC front-end, including rapid channel switching, video streaming to multiple TVs or IP devices, flexible recording/viewing, and progressive VOD in the background. By adding an optional terrestrial front-end module based on MaxLinear's superior terrestrial receiver technology to the platform, terrestrial broadcast channels can be captured.

The design of the Cannes and Monaco system-on-chip is based on an integrated hardware Faroudja® multimedia subsystem featuring ARM multicore processors, superior 2D/3D graphics performance with Mali™ GPUs, a powerful HEVC-supported video decoder, a high-performance video encoder, and high-quality video pre/post-processing. To enable flexible and cost-effective hardware designs, the Cannes and Monaco system-on-chip families provide various interfaces such as PCIe™ supporting Wi-Fi connectivity, smart card interfaces, 6 Gbit/s Gen 3 eSATA interfaces, USB2/3, SPI, I2C, SDIO, and DDR3 memory support. A security toolbox for premium content delivery is provided to optimize performance for premium content. Both chipset families have low power consumption, and these low-power features, combined with active standby mode support, enable the industry's best low-power solution.

"Ultra HD will provide a new level of user experience, creating a unique opportunity for satellite broadcasters to maximize the value of their vast premium content portfolios. ST and MaxLinear's gateway reference design will ensure a powerful and flexible platform that innovates the satellite-TV viewing experience," said Hervé Mathieu, Group Vice President and Business General Manager of ST's Integrated Platforms. "With ST's industry-leading position and the global success of the Cannes and Monaco platforms, we are now able to support satellite operators worldwide as they transition to new, groundbreaking platforms."

Brian Sprague, Vice President and Business General Manager at MaxLinear, said, “In 2015, 4K content support will become a priority for satellite broadcasters. And this reference design will set the standard for highest performance and lowest power consumption in the gateway sector,” adding, “For fast-moving OEMs, this design, which combines our FSC tuner with ST’s 4K/HEVC system-on-chip performance, will be ideal.”