Chrontel Intros HDMI™ CEC Chip

Low-cost Device Adds CEC-Capability to CE and PC Designs

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chrontel (www.chrontel.com), a leading provider of video interface technologies, today announced a new HDMI™ CEC (Consumer Electronic Control) IC, the CH7322. The CH7322 adds CEC functionality to digital TVs, PCs, video recorders and other A/V products that support the popular HDMI standard. With CEC capability embedded into consumer products, a viewer can control multiple HDMI-linked devices with a single remote control, enhancing the user experience.

"The CH7322 is the world’s first stand-alone CEC chip without an EEPROM and an additional CPU chip," said Dr. David Soo, Chrontel President and CEO. "It offers designers a way to augment their existing A/V designs for both PCs and consumer products with minimal incremental cost."

In addition to HDMI features incorporated into PC desktop or laptop graphic chipsets, many A/V products employ MPEG decoders or DTV-on-chip ICs that have integrated HDMI transmitters. The CH7322 allows such designs to add CEC functionality without the cost of an additional, redundant HDMI-CEC combination transmitter and a CPU for CEC message processing. The CH7322 can also be coupled with HDMI transmitter ICs that do not integrate the CEC capability. The CH7322 can also be designed into HDTVs with multiple HDMI inputs for handling CEC messages.

The CH7322 is compliant with HDMI 1.3a. It employs a single wire interface to transmit and receive CEC-defined opcodes that control A/V functionality on HDMI-attached products. CEC compliant consumer products are available from a wide range of CE manufacturers that use a variety of marketing names to refer to the CEC capability. Regardless of their names, all CEC-compliant devices are capable of interconnecting with any other CEC product from any manufacturer.

Pricing and Availability

Chrontel CH7322 samples are currently available, and production volumes will be available in Q1, 2008. The device is offered in a 16-pin, lead-free SSOP package. The CH7322 is priced at $1.50 in 10,000 piece quantities.

Additional information about all Chrontel products can be found on the web at http://www.chrontel.com/products.

About Chrontel, Inc.

Founded in 1986, privately held Chrontel is a leading supplier of video interface ICs and technologies to computer manufacturers worldwide. The company's innovations include the world's first VGA-to-TV encoder. Chrontel video display chips are incorporated into reference designs offered by many microprocessor and graphics processor vendors. The company currently offers the industry's most complete product line of video interface ICs for notebook and desktop computers, and its components can be found in PCs sold by dozens of leading manufacturers. Additional information about Chrontel can be found on its website: www.chrontel.com.