Submit Comments

Printer Friendly Version

LONDON, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Philips Semiconductors, a division of Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI), and Humax, a leading Korean set-top box (STB) manufacturer, will jointly demonstrate the Multimedia Home Platform's (MHP) capabilities at MediaCast in London, England on May 21-23.

The demonstrations mark Philips Semiconductors' continuing commitment to step into the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) market. Both Philips Semiconductors and Humax's demonstrations use STBs based on the pnx8525 Nexperia(TM) Home Entertainment Engine, a highly integrated, single digital set-top chip solution, and the first Nexperia Reference Platform, the STB8525.

The joint demonstrations complement Philips recent press announcement of product rollouts later this year of Philips Semiconductors' MHP solutions for digital television (DTV) and STBs. In addition, the demonstrations also mark Humax's announcement that it's implementing the MHP stack in its equipment and will release MHP-compliant set-top boxes by the end of this year.

MHP is an open standard developed by the MHP-Implementation Group based on Java software. The standard represents the next link in DVB, which provides the seamless convergence of television, multimedia and interactive services along with the added advantage of upgradability, modular hardware and downloadable software solutions.

``The demonstrations show how MHP technology can drive our service development into new markets,'' said Jungyong Kang, General Manager for Humax. ``Philips Semiconductors' Nexperia solutions allow broadcasters to do this by future proofing our solutions, as we continue to shape our standard development processes for tomorrow's products and services.''

``Philips Semiconductors' cooperation with Humax's next-generation set-top box design demonstrates our commitment toward developing the MHP standard,'' said Mark Samuel, Director of marketing for Philips Semiconductors' Digital Video Interactive Business Unit. ``Our Nexperia Home Entertainment Engines are ideally suited for MHP applications because they combine digital video, audio, 2-D graphics, time-shifted video recording and Internet content on a powerful, single chip solution.''

As the market for interoperable digital consumer electronics appliances expands, the high-end Nexperia solutions will enable service providers to capitalize on the MHP standard, which is emerging as a leading digital standard for broadcast television, multimedia programming and interactive services.

Humax Adds Philips Semiconductors TDA Products to Its Solutions

In other news, Humax will also be using Philips Semiconductors' highly integrated single-chip cable, satellite and terrestrial channel decoding solutions, the TDA10021, TDA10045 and TDA10085, to support its set-top boxes. The TDA10021 is a low cost and highly integrated DVB-C receiver. The TDA10045 is Philips Semiconductor's latest offering in DVB-terrestrial channel decoders, while the TDA10085 is a satellite channel receiver, complying with both DSS and DVB-S standards.

Nexperia Home Entertainment Engine Family

The entire family of Nexperia Home Entertainment Engines represent an advanced System-on-Chip (SoC) solution based on Philips Semiconductors' Nexperia DVP -- a scaleable platform architecture that addresses a wide range of digital video applications, employing the company's Sea-of-IP(TM) reuse methodology and standard hardware and software building blocks. Philips Semiconductors' pnx8525 is the first commercially available chip in the line targeted at advanced set-top boxes. The pnx8320 family of highly integrated, single chip solutions targets entry to midrange, advanced set-top boxes. For more information about Philips Semiconductors' Nexperia Home Entertainment Engines, visit www.nexperia.com.

About Humax

Humax was founded in 1989 as a manufacturer of industrial vision systems and began development and manufacturing of digital STBs in 1996. Humax established its overseas network in 1997, and now operates subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Dubai. In June 2000, Humax established a joint venture in Silicon Valley to drive North American marketing efforts and enhance research and development capacity. Humax offers 23 different STB models covering digital satellite, cable, and terrestrial receivers, as well as Web Box and HDD Box devices. For more information about Humax, please visit www.humaxdigital.com.

About Philips Semiconductors

Philips Semiconductors, which had annual revenues of approximately US$6.3 billion in 2000, designs and manufactures semiconductors and silicon systems platforms. Philips Semiconductors is spearheading the emerging field of systems on silicon solutions with the innovative Nexperia(TM) platform and VLSI Velocity(TM) tool set. The company's Sea-of-IP design methodology allows plug and play intellectual property blocks for easily customizable products. The company is a leader in communications, consumer, PC peripherals and automotive semiconductors, which are key applications for convergence in end-user products. Philips Semiconductors is headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and has operations throughout the world. For more information: www.philips.semiconductors.com.