IDTV reference platform for LCD-TVs

Toshiba Electronics Europe has announced a reference design platform optimised for integrated Digital Television (IDTV) designs, combining the hardware functions and interfaces required for an LCD-TV with Aurora middleware by Cabot Communications enabling a feature-rich digital media solution. The reference design combines an ALPS tuner and front-end with single-stream standard definition decoding as well as the sound-interface, AV interfaces to matrix switch, colour-decoder and scaler functions required to support the functions of an LCD-TV system.

 These functions combine with the capabilities of Toshiba’s “Donau-LC” System on Chip (SoC) for consumer digital media applications. Developers can also take advantage of integrated solutions to powerful-but-expected features of modern LCD-IDTVs, including Dolby ProLogic, Virtual Dolby, SRS True Surround and Common Interface, IDE interface for PVR support, and USB2.0 host. The platform is built around the TC90408FG ‘Donau-LC’ digital media SoC, which combines Toshiba’s Media embedded Processor (MeP) architecture with the Toshiba TX49 L3 64-bit embedded RISC processor with unified file system as host. It provides a four-plane video and graphics engine capable of progressive scan conversion with pixel-accurate on screen display (OSD) at panel resolutions up to 1080p (Full-HD panels).

 The MeP modules support dual-stream MPEG-2 video decoding as well as three-stream audio decoding to AAC, MPEG and AC-3 standards, allowing developers to quickly implement differentiating features such as audio description or bi-lingual audio decoding. All necessary demodulation circuitry, interfaces and controllers are also integrated on-chip, including an on-board COFDM (coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexer) demodulator for DVB-T applications that meets international specifications including ETSI 300 744 (DVB-T), NORDIG-II, NORDIG-Unified and DTG. The reference platform is offered complete with an optimised PCB design, enabling a compact solution capable of supporting up to 64Mbyte DRAM and up to 16Mbyte NOR Flash.

 The Aurora XT middleware stack meets European-wide DTV standards, country- and region-specific profiles and local receiver specifications, and supports multiple languages, Electronic Program Guides (EPGs), parental ratings, channel ordering, sub-titles and software update mechanisms. At the operating system level, the Emerald IDTV reference platform runs on Linux, delivering advantages for developers including a robust and mature kernel, integrated connectivity features and the proven standard Linux file system, as well as royalty free use and the availability of free tool chains.