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EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG; AXE: PHI), today launched the next generation of its Ultimate One Chip, single package television solution. The Ultimate One Chip/Plus is pin compatible with other members of the Ultimate One Chip family, allowing manufacturers to extend their existing chassis designs to address the mid and high-end television markets: a single chassis can support the entire range of 50Hz TV sets.

The original Ultimate One Chip was launched in 1999 and is now established as the market leader, which by next year will be used in over half of all new TV set designs worldwide. One package contains the complete functionality of a television set, including a TV signal processor, a teletext/closed caption decoder, graphics generator and a microcontroller core with an extended 80C51 instruction set. It provides complete coverage of all international standards for broadcast, supported by a software development tool kit. Development and manufacturing cycles are both shortened through the use of the unique on-chip One Time Programmable (OTP) memory.

``Gartner Dataquest predicts world television sales of 152.4 million sets in 2004, of which 10.7 million will be integrated digital broadcasting sets,'' said Wladimir Punt, international product manager for the Ultimate One Chip, at Philips Semiconductors. ``The Ultimate One Chip/Plus gives set makers the capability to address the upper end of that market, without having to make large investment in new designs and upgrading manufacturing. In conjunction with Philips Semiconductors' Intelligent Bolt On solution, the Ultimate One Chip/Plus also provides a simple upgrade path to digital TV when demand builds.''

The Ultimate One Chip/Plus family adds to the already extensive line-up of the Ultimate One Chip with features such as a state of the art microcontroller/graphics generator. Major enhancements for IF and Audio include: combination of FM, AM and QSS in one device; separation of audio and video switching; second carrier FM demodulation (2nd language) and a signal strength indication which can be used to program picture control settings.

For Video and RGB there are a range of picture improvement features including video dependent coring to minimize background noise, dynamic skin tone control to detect and compensate phase errors in NTSC transmissions, blue stretch, a programmable Peak White Limiter and Soft Clipper function for optimal dynamic picture behavior.

There is a selectable YUV or YprPb (DVD) input, improved factory alignment (VG2), CCC line masking in a 4:3 when in 16:9 applications, adjustable Wide Blanking for perfect blanking 4:3 picture in 16:9 applications.

The Ultimate One Chip/Plus is available in both SDIL 64 and QFP 80 packaging. The extra I/O available with the QFP enables further features including two external audio inputs, 3 CVBS or 2 CVBS and 1 Y/C inputs and an additional CVBS output. The QFP members also include group-delay correction (BG or flat), white stretch and DC transfer ratio to enable an ``economy'' histogram function, and can provide In-System Programming through a JTAG interface. The ISP interface allows customers to carry out the (final) programming in their production environment.

Further variants within the extended family provide Scavem for improved picture quality (Scan Velocity Modulation), an FM radio facility (to allow the addition of an FM radio to the TV set) and DVB down conversion. This, in combination with the Philips' Intelligent Bolt On solution extends existing chassis designs into the digital broadcast world.

The software support has been further extended. The GTV (Global Television) development kit provides manufacturers with a complete range of software tools and modules to add further differentiation for their designs.

Philips Semiconductors will be demonstrating the Ultimate One Chip/Plus at IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung, Berlin, 25 August - 2 September) in a range of systems, including 100Hz and LCD TVs.

Samples, and evaluation boards are available now and the Ultimate One Chip/Plus is entering volume production.

Philips Semiconductors, which had annual revenues of approximately U.S. $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(TM) 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.semiconductors.philips.com.