Philips launches semiconductor industry's first single chip for LCD TV
The TDA15500 provides highly integrated and cost-effective support for the low-end LCD global television market
Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) today announced the launch of its TDA15500 single chip solution for low-end LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) TV sets. The TDA15500 is the first single system chip solution that provides manufacturers of LCD TV sets features such as video decoding, picture improvement, de-interlacing and scaling, sound entertainment and a microcontroller with teletext. The technology behind the TDA15500 is derived from Philips’ Ultimate-One-Chip (UOC) third generation solution and Philips’ scaler expertise. The high integration level of the single chip and the solution’s resulting lower cost enable manufacturers, with the help of a reference design, to compete effectively and offer affordable LCD television sets to the Connected Consumer.
With the booming flat panel display and LCD TV market, we are witnessing unprecedented changes in the world of television. According to Strategy Analytics, the LCD market is likely to reach 32 million units by 2008 on a quantum basis, approximately 7 times the figure expected for 2003. Small and medium sized displays currently dominate the market, but the 30"+ segment will grow rapidly from 2005 onwards. Due to Philips’ commitment to developing state-of-the-art chip technology for the LCD TV market, Philips is ahead of the industry in developing single chip solutions such as the TDA15500 which will help drive the adoption of LCD TV.
"With Philips' proven and extensive knowledge in the television arena, its semiconductor division is a leader in developing single chip technology," said David Mercer, VP and Principal Analyst at Strategy Analytics. "Single chip solutions such as Philips' TDA15500 will help drive growth in the low-end LCD market as the technology will allow more manufacturers to bring affordable LCD TV sets to market."
“Our latest single chip system solution revolutionizes the LCD TV industry and we are the first to the market with such a single chip,” said Jos Klippert, marketing director for LCD TV solutions at Philips Semiconductors. “The TDA15500 is a low cost, single chip implementation in an easy to use reference design that gives our customers the possibility to build competitive LCD TVs with fast time to market in a highly competitive marketplace – whilst also providing our customers with the flexibility to differentiate themselves from other market players”.
Containing the field proven and truly global video decoding from Philips’ UOC family, the TDA15500 offers customers a way for a smooth implementation of LCD TV solution. The single chip also contains an on-chip microcontroller that permits the full implementation of LCD TV systems with a minimum number of external components. Integrating the video decoding capabilities developed in the UOC family with advanced de-interlacing features allows for this easy implementation of the LCD-TV solution and gives customers rapid time to market. The system inherits the software environment already established in fifty percent of TV sets produced worldwide based on the Philips GTV reference software. In addition, by integrating this single chip into LCD television sets, manufacturers will gain a serious competitive advantage in the low-end market, drive costs down in the LCD TV market in general and ultimately provide end consumers with LCD TV sets that they can afford, hence paving the way for mass adoption of LCD television.
Availability
Product sampling will begin in Q2 2004 with mass production expected to commence in Q4 2004.