NEC Electronics Introduces Single-Chip Secure MPEG Decoder for Set Top Boxes

Enhanced Security Features to Prevent Piracy of Pay Television Broadcasts

To address the increasing number of incidences of pay television piracy, NEC Electronics (TSE:6723) has introduced a single-chip MPEG decoder for the digital set top box (STB) market with enhanced security. By working closely with conditional access vendors, NEC Electronics incorporated features designed specifically to prevent illegal reception of pay television broadcasts and copying of the information stored in STBs.

The µPD61126 decoder integrates two MIPS32® 4KEc™ microprocessor cores capable of delivering speeds of up to 286 MIPS each. The device also offers an improved DDR-SDRAM interface, with speeds of up to 333MHz and up to 1GB of memory volume. With an enhanced graphics engine, designers now have even more flexibility to handle advanced graphics and data manipulation. The combination of these performance-enhancing features enables smooth operation of MHP, outstanding speed of MHEG interactive applications and integration of the standard on-screen display functions.

An embedded USB1.1 host interface permits connection to external devices such as cable modems or digital cameras, and direct support for DVB-CI eliminates the need for external routing chips. In addition to these functions, the device has comprehensive power management coupled with a design process optimised for low power operation. The µPD61126 also employs maximum reuse of hardware and software components from field-proven devices to facilitate speedy migration from legacy devices.

“Piracy of digital broadcasts is a growing and costly issue for producers, content owners, and broadcasters of television programming,” stated Masao Hirasawa, general manager, Digital AV Systems Division, NEC Electronics. “The newest addition to our line-up of MPEG decoders provides an affordable single-chip solution designed to significantly limit such illegal activities.”

The uPD61126 is supported by a range of software and middleware, including reference designs, evaluation systems and a full suite of high level application program interfaces (APIs) and wrappers, compatible across the whole range of NEC Electronics’ digital AV devices. API and key middleware applications, including MHEG and MHP, will be provided by a Europe-based support team.

Samples of the uPD61126 are available today, upon request.

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