Taipei, Taiwan, May 3, 2010 — ALi Corporation, a leading fabless semiconductor company with more than 150M set-top box (STB) system-on-chips (SoCs) shipping into digital satellite and terrestrial retail markets, today announced that it has partnered with SMiT, a Conditional Access Modules (CAM) manufacturer with leading market share in Europe, to develop CAM cards for high definition (HD) STBs with CI+ functionality. Through this partnership, SMiT will be able to leverage ALi’s newly launched HD STB SoC solution M3606 to facilitate interactive and advanced STB functionality and high definition MPEG-2/MPEG-4 and H.264 video decoder capabilities. Targeting at high-end STB market, the ALi-based STB with CI+ CAM card will enable digital STB and integrated digital televisions to receive current premium and pay-per-view TV channels and allow consumers to choose their digital TV receiver independent of digital TV services.
ALi’s STB solution has gained number one market share position in global retail market; therefore, the collaboration between ALi and SMiT brings together the comprehensive product families of ALi’s STB SoC solution and the world’s leading CAM manufacturer’s high security capabilities including design, integration and manufacturing.
The highly integrated and low power M3606 SoC is a cost-effective, single-chip solution designed for high definition MPEG-2/MPEG-4 and H.264 video decoder applications. With dual 32-bit 400Mhz RISC CPUs, audio DAC and accelerator for MPEG-2/MPEG-4 and H.264 video decoding, the M3606 is a flexible total solution that features all the major subsystems required to implement digital STB front/back end for IPTV, satellite, cable or terrestrial TV networks.
In addition, ALi’s M3606 features an impressive array of interfaces, including dual USB 2.0 host controllers and Ethernet. Other major functional blocks include integrated DDRII SDRAM/Flash memory controller, 5.1 channel digital audio interface (SPDIF), and dedicated display engine for STB visual playback. This high level of integration enables a system that allows the flexibility of supporting different modulation and compression technologies with a low-cost, high-performance STB back end solution.
“We are pleased and excited that SMiT decided to choose ALi products,” said Tony Chang, vice president of the Digital Entertainment Systems Business Unit at ALi Corporation. “We believe the partnership between SMiT and ALi will result in an unrivalled combination of market know-how, IP and integration skills. Leveraging ALi’s STB solution, SMiT will significantly shorten time-to-market and strengthen its competitive advantage in established and fast-growing markets.”
ALi has a broad portfolio of STB solutions that incorporate advanced security technologies, which greatly enhance the ability of broadcasters to protect their service against piracy. For example, the M3606 SoC fully adheres to the CI+ standard, which is now the mainstream specification in European market. By adding additional security and features to the proven DVB Common Interface standard, the M3606 SoC will allow CI+ compatible consumer electronic devices access to a wide variety of pay TV services via plug-in CI+ modules.
Product Availability
M3606 samples are available upon request, and a reference platform is available now with volume production expected in Q3 2010.
About ALi Corporation
Founded in 1987, ALi Corporation is headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan and has R&D, sales and technical support teams worldwide. Ali focus on set-top box, consumer digital audio/video, and multimedia IC. Devoted to be an IC design company with high performance and advanced technology, ALi Corporation is visioning to develop digital entertainment SOC and software to enrich customers’ multimedia technology experiences, enhance the competence of partners and improve the development of consumer electronics. For more information, please visit www.alitech.com.
About SMiT
SMiT, Shenzhen State Micro Technology Co.Ltd, is an international high-tech company, invested by U.S venture capital, with development and sales offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Peking China, support center in Munich. Based on own self-developed SOC technology, SMiT designs and manufactures high security CAM, which ensures the revenue of TV operator.
For more information, please visit www.smit.com.cn.
