Intel has chosen Siano’s mobile TV SMS1000 chipset to use for the reception of all forms of mobile TV in its ultra mobile personal computers (UMPCs). The device will go into the UMPC reference design, and although equipment manufacturers could potentially choose their own devices instead, it is likely that with this single win Siano has captured a huge market share in devices that can watch mobile TV, but which are not handsets.
This is Siano’s 4th design win, its first was with the Xscale division of Intel which was subsequently sold to Marvell semiconductor. The others are with ZTE and just last week with BenQ.
DiBcom is widely understood to be the leader in mobile TV chips, and given that DiBcom began life as a chip designer for DVB-T reception in portable devices, this must be something of a crushing defeat for it, in a deal that they might have expected to win except for the background that was established with the previous Siano sale to Intel.
DiBcom had more that a year when it was the only company in the world that was shipping volume DVB-H chips, and with Philips (now NXP) and Texas late in reaching volume manufacturing, only Siano has made inroads into the DiBcom lead. Qualcomm is also shipping a chip for MediaFLO and DVB-H.
Siano will tell you that the chip was tested against all the others in the market and that it outperformed them all in one way or another, but our guess is that the Siano decision is because of its own foresight in going for a multi-standard device. The Siano chip works with multiple flavors of mobile TV, including DVB-H, T-DMB and DAB-IP as well as digital terrestrial DVB-T.
Given that more than 60 countries have backed the DVB-T standard, and that only Korea has been a major backer for the DAB based T-DMB, this combination is vital if PCs are going to pick up TV and just work, pretty much all over the world.
DiBcom told us in February that it was finally offering a chip that offered multi-standards, but its CEO Yannick Levy explained that he didn’t really think there was much call for multi-standard devices. This design win proves he was wrong to wait so long to come out with a multi-standard chip and the contract definitely puts Siano in the race for market domination, whereas before it was clearly an outsider.
The design win is referred to as Intel’s new MID (mobile internet device) platform which will deliver entertainment, communication and navigation, enhanced by a rich Internet experience in small, ultra-mobile devices.
This isn’t quite the palm sized device that Intel has promised for the future, but a new class of UMPC that will offer GPS, mobile TV and even UMTS (that’s right a cellular link on a PC).
We spokes to Siano CEO Alon Ironi, who told us, ‘There is an Intel motherboard in the design and most of the device suppliers will take that, then there are a set of optional daughter boards offering UMTS, GPS and mobile TV. We think that PC makers will first use this system to offer DVB-T service, because they are already launched in far more countries, and later will add DVB-H capabilities.’
DVB-T is organized entirely differently from DVB-H, using a fraction of a UHF channel to send each of the digital TV channels in real time, all the time, whereas DVB-H uses the entire signal’s bandwidth to send the next few seconds of a single TV channel and then switches to the next channel and the next and so on. So DVB-T is a traditional multiplex, while DVB-H is time sliced. That means that battery life is a real issue for DVB-T devices and DVB-H is preferable in the long run because the radio is only turned on when the signal is being received, about 7% of the time.
Of course with the Siano chip, nothing much needs to change, because it already supports both modes of operation and now the company has to come to grips with the other two major mobile TV platforms out there, the US only (so far) MediaFLO from Qualcomm and the Chinese satellite delivered STiMi technology.
Ironi would not be drawn on if and when Siano might address these markets, but said, ‘Technically it’s feasible to build new standards into the chip. The tuner is identical, it’s the demodulator that has quite a few differences. We will definitely be coming out with a chip for the Chinese market, but I wouldn’t like to be pinned to a timeframe,’ he said.
But MediaFLO has cast a huge shadow over the fast moving US continent and has launched ahead of rivals and has currently got far greater coverage and two huge partners in AT&T and Verizon. The chances are that all of the major mobile TV chip vendors will have to consider licensing the MediaFLO technology, although licensing terms could be extravagant.
Siano says that the new Intel MID platform will have enough battery to allow consumers to watch mobile TV for 8 hours (we suspect on DVB-T) and up to 20 hours (on DVB-H) depending on the broadcast technology.