Texas Instruments starts sampling U.S. digital radio baseband chip
Semiconductor Business News
(08/12/02 02:32 p.m. EST)
DALLAS, Texas -- Texas Instruments Inc. has started sampling a baseband chip to implement digital radio technology to the HD Radio standard, formerly known as In Band On Channel (IBOC). Samples are priced at $50 each with volume production scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2002. No volume pricing was given.
The DRI200 chip implements the IBOC digital AM and FM technology of iBiquity Digital Corp. that is intended to enable digital reception technology in home and car receivers for U.S. retail launch in 2003 and for automakers in 2004, Dallas-headquartered TI said.
An IBOC digital module, incorporating TI's chip with software to process the HD Radio baseband signal, is also available from iBiquity for radio manufacturers to deploy in new digital receiversTI's DRI200 chip, which is based on the TMS320C6000 digital signal processor architecture, incorporates digital channel, source and data decoding and demodulation functions, TI said.
The IDM and software radio approach that TI and iBiquity have taken allows manufacturers to enter the emerging digital radio market quickly and with little design risk," said O'Connell Benjamin, senior vice president and co- chief operating officer of iBiquity, in a statement.
Major broadcasters are expected to begin transmission of HD Radio signals starting in the fourth quarter of 2002 in six geographic areas: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Seattle.
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