A few weeks back, LSI Logic held a consumer-electronic-centric press event to outline its strategy in that space. The company invited partners to demonstrate some innovative new products based on LSI Logic silicon. The highlight of the program was the latest member of the DoMiNo product family, the DMN-8653, a video decoder SOC introduced on July 4. The company also discussed its position in the professional broadcast market, in flat-panel displays, and in DSP-centric applications such as handsets.
The DMN-8653, the third generation of the DoMiNo family, primarily targets DVD Recorders but can also be used in PVRs and digital set-top boxes. The latest offering supports all of the current recordable and rewritable optical disk types, including DVD±R/RW. Unlike the prior-generation chip, the DMN-8653 can also support a hard drive for the PVR function, and can simultaneously encode two incoming SD video streams using MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, or DivX codecs. Moreover, the chip is flexible and will let consumer-electronics vendors use the same SOC in low- and high-end products. For example, a designer would pair the chip with a two-chip, 32-bit memory array to enable dual-channel operation, while a single-chip 16-bit device would suffice in entry-level DVD recorders. In high volume, the device will cost $25. LSI Logic also showed photos of the evolution of DVD recorders. The electronics have been reduced to the degree that the disk drives and power supply dictate product size because the electronics are amazingly simple.
While I think the company has been very innovative with its digital-video family, I still left the presentation thinking that it doesn't necessarily have a proper view of the market. The DMN-8653 presentation attempted to make two major points. First, LSI argued that the DVD Recorder is a much different and more complex device than a DVD player. The company is spot on with that thought, but I don’t know who might argue with it. A DVD recorder requires encoding, one or more tuners, and other functions that aren’t needed in a DVD player.
The second main theme focused on the DVD recorder as the hub of the digital living room. LSI Logic presented the DVD recorder as if it were the device that all consumers would buy, and indicated that it might or might not also include PVR capabilities. The company presented numbers from In-Stat that projected how many DVD recorders will include PVR capability by 2008. According to the In-Stat and LSI numbers, by 2008, 35% of DVD recorders will also sport hard drives and PVR capabilities in North America. The projections around the world include 50% in Europe and 90% in Japan. LSI Logic also argued that the DVD recorder would become the set-top box of choice once cable MSOs begin to supply digital decoders in the form of modular CableCARDs.
I couldn’t disagree more with LSI’s market assessment. A hard-drive-based product will anchor the living room, and an optical drive will be the option. Frankly, optical burners of all types are inherently short-lived, in my experience. While my first TiVO has been happily humming along for five years or so, I’ve been through close to a dozen recordable/rewritable optical drives in the same time period. Moreover, today there are more PVRs in the market than DVD recorders. The look at the market should be based on the PVR.
I do understand the situation that LSI Logic finds itself in. Unless a company with a technology such as DoMiNo can make a deal with DirecTV, Dish Network, Scientific Atlanta, or Motorola, it will be left out of the digital set-top-box market in North America. Moreover, most PVRs will flow through those same channels. It will be interesting to see if CableCARD really happens and changes the dynamics and how IP-based set-top-box technology will affect the market—but those are topics for another post.
The rest of the presentations did yield some interesting tidbits. Because LSI also supplies chips into the professional encoding market, the company has some insight into codec futures. Bob Saffari, senior director of marketing and business development for professional/broadcast, speculated that H.264 (MPEG-4) would win 80% of the market over Microsoft’s VC-1 for HD encoding. Today, an H.264 HD encoder requires 20 to 30 chips, depending on implementation. Saffari wouldn’t speculate on a roadmap to a more highly integrated H.264 HD encoder. But in the past, LSI Logic has cut the number of chips required to implement earlier codecs in half or better every two to three years. Saffari did project that by 2010, we’ll see HD programs carried in 5- to 7-Mbps H.264 streams, whereas today HD requires 15- to 20-Mbps MPEG-2 streams. So there is clearly lots of silicon work left to support ubiquitous HD.
Neither Saffari nor Jim Fox, director of marketing for DVD products, would pick a winner among the HD DVD and BluRay factions trying to establish a high-definition DVD standard. The company is resigned to supporting both. The cost in the electronics will not be that great, but the cost of optical pickups and other electromechanical components will impact consumer prices if support for both flavors must be present.
LSI Logic is relatively new to the flat-panel market. But Kenroy Francis, director of marketing for digital TV products, claims the company can win share through its ability to support media processing and display processing. Media processing includes tasks such as MPEG decoding that LSI has long experience with. The company announced its ClearView display processing—scaling, de-interlacing, image enhancing—capability back at CES early this year.
Finally, I was surprised to learn just how many ways LSI offers its ZSP-branded DSP technology. As in other technology areas, the company has some standard ZSP-based products, and it’s available in structured and cell-based ASICs. But LSI also licenses the ZSP core and sells ZSP wafers for use in system-in-package designs. The top of the line core is the 400-MHz, quad-MAC ZSP-600. The company has sold ZSP into a variety of markets including communications and multimedia. Tuan Dao, VP and general manager of the DSP products division, claims major 2G and 3G handset design wins in Asia and other regions outside of North America.
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