Microtune Reference Design Gives OEMs Cost, Performance and Time-to-Market Advantage in Building DVB-C Set-Top Boxes

Jointly Developed with STMicroelectronics, the New Reference Design Offers a Turnkey Tuner-Demod Platform Engineered to Offer Improved Performance, Reduced BOM Cost and Ease of Implementation
China Cable Broadcasting Networks

PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Microtune®, Inc. (Nasdaq:TUNE) today announced the availability of a new Digital Video Broadcast-Cable (DVB-C) Reference Design targeted for the Europe, Asia and China markets.

Based on Microtune’s MicroTuner™ MT2060 high-performance tuner chip and the new STV0297E cable demodulator of STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), the Reference Design is expected to offer the most cost-effective turnkey tuner-demodulator subsystem on the market today. It permits original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to deploy the latest radio frequency (RF) and digital demodulator technologies in a ready-to-implement solution that reduces the footprint, cost and development time to bring new DVB-C cable access products to market.

STMicroelectronics is the world’s leading supplier of silicon chips for set-top boxes (STBs)1. Microtune is a market leader in RF silicon tuner technology for consumer electronics and broadband communications.

DEMONSTRATIONS AT CHINA CABLE TRADE SHOW

The Reference Design will be demonstrated at Microtune’s booth (Booth number B182, Hall 1B) at the China Cable Broadcasting Networks (CCBN) Trade Show held in Beijing, China, from March 30-April 1, 2007. The demo will feature live reception and video decode. The Reference Design will also be demonstrated at the STMicroelectronics’ suite at the Sheraton Hotel.

“STMicroelectronics and Microtune have successfully collaborated on many projects in the past. We constitute a formidable team attacking the DVB-C cable opportunities in Europe and Asia, and particularly, in China where demand is especially strong,” said Albert Taddiken, Microtune’s Chief Operating Officer. “Both companies share a complementary technology and market vision - we are committed to developing industry-leading ICs that offer aggressive integration and performance, together with cost-reduction roadmaps. Backed by our extensive experience with the DVB specifications, we understand the needs of cable OEMs that demand fully tested and supported solutions as they begin to manufacture new classes of digital equipment.”

“The Reference Design deploys our enhanced STV0297E cable demodulator which offers improved performance, even in degraded networks, and embedded new features that contribute to robust, yet even lower-cost set-top boxes,” said Monica De Virgiliis, General Manager for ST’s Home Video Division, STMicroelectronics. “By combining our leading-edge digital technology with Microtune’s superior RF technology, we have developed an advanced turnkey Reference Design optimized for the DVB-C market. Leveraging our companies’ world-class systems expertise, our solution accelerates the time-to-market for OEMs and results in cable access products that offer superior performance, reliability, low power and very low cost.”

The DVB-C Reference Design is engineered to offer a complete and highly optimized hardware-and-software solution that allows DVB-C products to be quickly field tested and brought to market. As with its other joint solutions, the Microtune/ST Reference Design comes with full design support, including circuit schematics, printed circuit board layout, bill of materials and core software. Set-top box manufacturers can build upon the design or customize it to meet specific application requirements. The Reference Design meets or exceeds all known requirements of cable operators in China and Europe.

STMicroelectronics and Microtune plan to evolve their system-level reference solutions to incorporate future-generation products, providing customers a migration path to continued cost, power and performance improvements. Both companies will demonstrate and promote the reference solutions with each of the companies selling and marketing the individual products combined in these solutions resulting from the collaboration.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

The DVB-C Reference Design (MT2060-STV0297E-RD) is available today from Microtune. Contact Microtune or STMicroelectronics for more information about the Reference Design. Contact Microtune and STMicroelectronics Sales for pricing of their individual components.

REFERENCE-DESIGN ANNOUNCEMENTS

It is not unusual for Microtune to announce reference designs of this kind, and the announcement of this reference design, or any other design concept, should not be viewed as an indicator of Microtune revenues for any current or future reporting period.

ABOUT MICROTUNE

Microtune, Inc. is a silicon and subsystems company that designs and markets radio frequency (RF) solutions for the worldwide broadband communications and transportation electronics markets. Inventor of the MicroTuner™ single-chip broadband tuner, Microtune offers a portfolio of advanced tuner, amplifier, and upconverter products that enable the delivery of information and entertainment across new classes of consumer electronics devices. The Company currently holds 70 U.S. patents for its technology. Founded in 1996, Microtune is headquartered in Plano, Texas, with key design and sales centers located around the world. The website is www.microtune.com.