Broadcom Integrates Recently Acquired AMD's Digital Television Business

By Anshu Shrivastava, TMCnet Contributor

Broadcom says the integration of AMD's (News - Alert) digital television (DTV) business has enabled it to extend its product lines and turnkey system solutions for next-generation DTV platforms.

Earlier this year in October, Broadcom (News - Alert) announced the completion of its acquisition of AMD's DTV business. The deal, which was initially agreed in August, included a reduction in purchase price from $192.8 million to $141.5 million in cash.

In January, Company plans to demonstrate the combined key DTV technologies. The demonstration is expected to include a complete 120Hz advanced video coding (AVC) connected TV platform.

Additionally, the company also plans to demonstrate complete hardware/software system solution, which combines the customer application ready design (CARD) reference platform.

Company officials said that their DTV product roadmap currently features the complete solutions. Previously, these solutions were offered by Broadcom's and AMD's DTV businesses separately.

In addition, the DTV product roadmap also features a rich DTV product portfolio that integrates technologies from both companies.

The integration of the AMD DTV team and technologies provides the foundation to strengthen the combined businesses and expands the technology portfolio, said Dan Marotta, senior vice president and general manager of Broadband Communications at Broadcom.

Marotta said that the two of the new DTV technology demonstrations will showcase integration and advanced functionality, adding that the functionality provides OEM partners with the ability to customize and differentiate their next generation products.

Broadcom is expected to demonstrate a complete 120Hz AVC-connected TV platform, which is based on the BCM3549 and BCM35421 DTV technology.

Officials said that this TV platform allows users to access Internet-based web sites, home network-based digital photos, music and videos, and video-on-demand (VoD) services that are integrated within the television.

A complete hardware and software turnkey system will also be demonstrated next year in January. This solution integrates the CARD reference platform with the Broadcom BCM3549 multi-format decoder connected DTV system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution.

Officials said with CARD platform, TV manufacturers can customize both hardware and software designs to differentiate products based on user interfaces and the visual look and feel.

Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anshu's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Tim Gray