Mirics targets ARM processor-based smartphones with FlexiTV

FLEET, UK: Mirics Semiconductor announced that it is developing mobile TV and radio solutions for smartphone applications by migrating its FlexiTV platform to the ARM Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 applications processors.

In targeting the ARM Cortex applications processors, Mirics will enable low cost, region independent mobile TV and radio reception on media-rich phones, thereby marking Mirics' first step into the cellphone market with software-based TV and radio solutions.

Smartphones represent one of the fasting growing segments within the cellphone market, and market research firm ABI Research estimates that the total market size for such devices could exceed 200 million units in 2010 alone.

Following Mirics' announcement last week of FlexiTV support for the Intel Atom processor, this latest development for the ARM Cortex applications processors demonstrates Mirics' on-going commitment to enable platform agnostic broadcast content, whilst substantially reducing the cost and footprint of adding TV and radio reception.

Mirics CEO, Simon Atkinson, said: "Rapidly growing consumer demand for the widest range of media-rich content on portable devices has seen the evolution of smartphones from voice-centric devices into multi-media entertainment platforms.

"Mobile TV and radio are therefore content applications naturally well suited for support on smartphones. The ARM Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processors are the de-facto standard embedded applications processors for cellphones enhanced with multi-media functionality, so the architecture was the natural choice for us to target with FlexiTV."

ARM executive vice president of marketing, Ian Drew commented, "We believe that the combination of the Cortex applications processors' low power multicore architecture and NEON media processing engine, together with Mirics' software-based FlexiTV demodulator provides the low cost solution to the challenge of delivering multi-standard mobile TV reception on smartphones."

Mirics stated that its initial smartphone-based solutions will address the Korean and Japanese mobile TV standards -- T-DMB and ISDB-T OneSeg, respectively -– which have achieved by far the greatest geographic penetration. Mirics expects to sample FlexiTV solutions based upon the Cortex applications processors to lead customers in the 4th quarter of 2009 with production being ready for early 2010.

Mirics brings FlexiTV to Intel Atom based platforms

FLEET, ENGLAND: Mirics Semiconductor has expanded its FlexiTV technology by launching a range of mobile TV and radio applications targeted at products powered by the Intel Atom CPU platform.

This latest innovation brings low-cost embedded mobile TV and radio functionality to ultra-portable and low power PC products such as netbooks and mobile internet devices (MIDs).

First launched in 2008, FlexiTV leverages host processor-based software demodulation, bringing global broadcast reception at an unparalleled cost structure to consumer electronics (CE) devices.

The FlexiTV product portfolio originally targeted notebook platforms powered by dual-core x86 CPUs, and the expansion to cover Atom-based technology is in line with the company’s objective to offer the broadest range of mobile TV and radio solutions to device manufacturers and system integrators.

FlexiTV now supports the Japanese and Korean mobile TV standards -- ISDB-T OneSeg and T-DMB, respectively -- on PC devices featuring the Atom CPU. According to forecasts by ABI Research, total OneSeg device shipments in 2010 will exceed 33 million units, whilst the equivalent figure for T-DMB is expected to be at least 12 million units, thereby offering significant commercial opportunity for FlexiTV.

In addition to mobile TV support, Mirics also announced Atom-based software demodulation support for Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) and FM radio. DAB-based audio services are experiencing growing popularity, with over nine million cumulative device shipment to date, and consumer demand is expected to grow in the coming years as various European countries implement plans for analog radio switch-off.

Mirics CEO Simon Atkinson stated: “ISDB-T and T-DMB continue to represent the most significant market opportunities for mobile TV. By delivering highly efficient software-based solutions for products powered by the Intel Atom processor, Mirics continues to expand the range of consumer computing and communications platforms that can feature embedded TV and radio at price points demanded by manufacturers and consumers, alike.”

To illustrate the suitability of FlexiTV for products such as Netbooks and MIDs where maintaining long battery life is of paramount importance, Mirics stated that in the case of ISDB-T OneSeg, software demodulation running on an N270 Atom processor, consumes a CPU load of only 20 percent.

Mirics will sample FlexiTV solutions targeting the Atom to select partners during Q3 2009, and formally release to production in Q4 2009.