Texas Instruments Introduces Cost-Effective, Single-Chip 1394a (FireWire(R)) Link & PHY for Audio/Video Data Connectivity in Consumer Electronics

DALLAS, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Providing consumer electronics designers with advanced functionality to communicate audio/video (A/V) data across a 1394 (FireWire(R)) network, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) announced today a new cost-effective, integrated 1394a link-layer-controller and two-port physical-layer-controller (PHY). This cost-effective technology, which has a PCI host interface option, gives designers of multi-media applications, such as set-top boxes, DVD player/recorder, digital TV and digital VCR, an off-the-shelf component that facilitates the communication of compressed A/V data (i.e. DV, MPEG-TS, DirecTV TS) and digital audio according to the IEC61883 standard. (See http://www.ti.com/sc04111 for more information.)

The TSB43DA42 and TSB43DB42 Link and PHY each includes three high speed data interface (HSDI) ports. Each port, which supports I/O of data, is dedicated to an isochronous data path and can be independently configured to transmit/receive to and from 1394. Additionally, all three ports support seamless connections to the various codecs on the market. The integrated two- port PHY is capable of communicating at 400, 200 or 100 Mbps.

"In the consumer electronics market it is necessary that devices be able to communicate A/V data efficiently and effectively," said Cecelia Smith, marketing manager for TI's consumer networking group. "With cost effective integration, fast transmit speeds and high levels of content protection, TI's technology meets this and many more industry requirements."

Equipped with digital transmission content protection (DTCP), the TSB43DA42 can handle all of the formatting of the IEC61883 packets. To do this, the device must first be configured by an external CPU which is connected to the host interface using either a PCI or SRAM/68K bus. The TSB43DB42 is pin-for-pin compatible with the TSB43DA42, but does not include DTCP.

When transmitting to the 1394 network, the codecs will be responsible for outputting the compressed data, and the device will generate and output the IEC61883 packet containing the data. When receiving data from the 1394 network, TSB43DA42 will remove the 1394 headers and timestamps from the IEC61883 packet and then output the compressed A/V data to the codec.

   Key Features
   --  IEEE 1394a compliant
   --  DTCP (5C) content protection (TSB43DA42 only)
   --  Three data paths for isochronous data (4KB FIFO and DTCP cipher)
   --  2-port PHY (400Mbps each)
   --  Controlled by external CPU using either PCI or SRAM/68K interface
   --  DMA engines to accelerate communication of SBP2 (serial bus protocol)
       transactions and OSD (on-screen display) data

  Availability, Packaging and Pricing

The TSB43DA42 and the TSB43DB42 are available now in a 196-pin MicroStar BGA(TM) 15x15mm package. Suggested resale pricing in quantities of 1,000 is $8.25 for the TSB43DA42 and $7.85 for the TSB43DB42.

Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.

Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com/ .

CONTACT: Tracy Wright of Texas Instruments Incorporated,
+1-214-480-7487, or t-wright@ti.com ; or Heather Mills, +1-972-308-9131, or
hmills@golinharris.com , for Texas Instruments Incorporated. Please do not
publish these phone numbers or e-mail addresses.

Web site: http://www.ti.com/
http://www.ti.com/sc04111