Samsung produces powerful HDTV system on a chip

Samsung Electronics has really put together a monster HDTV chip. If you are not familiar with Samsung, they are from Korea and among other things, have really produced some nice, big screen, high definition televisions. Seems like this arena is getting similar to other hardware though, just about the time you think you know what you want, they produce something better. So it's hard to figure out, when to jump in. Especially now, this system on a chip can do it all. Suitable for HDTV displays or even set top boxes, this might be worth waiting for. Thanks go to GristyMcFisty, news poster extraordinaire, for spotting this interesting report from the Inquirer.

The S5H220 includes dual high definition MPEG 2 decoders to transmit broadcasts to sub screens and the main screen, and incorporates ARM"s 92OT 330MHz CPU. It also includes Samsung"s digital natural image engine, supports different modes including picture in graphics (PIG) and picture in picture (PIP).The chip also includes a 24 bit digital signal processor and supports multiple input transport stream decoder for personal video recorders.There"s more, believe it or believe it not. It has interfaces for peripherals include Memory Stick, ATAPI, Firewire and USB.

Now, that is one geeky television chip. Samsung says that time is running out for manufacturers to make the deadline for digital broadcasing tuners, so I guess they are not fooling around. This applies to 50% of any set over 36", by 2007 the rule applies to a set as small as 13 inches. It has been speculated that by 2008 some 70 million sets will have been produced.

Source: The Inquirer