NEC Electronics Announces Single-Chip Solution Supporting IEEE 1394 AVLink and DV Decoding

Solution Also Provides DTCP and Broadcast Flag Support to Digital Consumer Market

Further strengthening its leadership in the digital consumer market, NEC Electronics Corporation and its subsidiaries in the United States and Europe, NEC Electronics America, Inc. and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, today announced availability of the MC-10024, a large-scale integrated (LSI) device that provides a three-port IEEE 1394 physical layer (PHY), AVLink, and DV (digital video) decoder in a single device.  The MC-10024 chip leverages NEC Electronics’ proven IEEE 1394 PHY/OHCI architecture, which has already been shipped in several million units worldwide, with a DV decoder to reduce component count in digital TV, set-top box and PC peripheral applications.  The MC-10024 chip also supports the Digital Transmission Content Protection (DTCP) system and will support broadcast-flag copy protection to provide the secure distribution of copyrighted digital content.

Supporting up to four simultaneous transport streams, the MC-10024 chip also allows data to be transmitted via direct memory access (DMA), enabling the instantaneous upload of a graphical user interface (GUI) that greatly increases the user experience.

“As the digital consumer space continues to enjoy rapid growth, NEC Electronics has established itself as a leading supplier of ICs in this market, providing a range of MPEG codec and IEEE 1394 consumer solutions,” said Masao Hirasawa, general manager, Digital Audio/Visual Systems Division, NEC Electronics Corporation.  “However, the ongoing growth of the digital media market requires that content providers feel secure that their copyrights remain intact.  Solutions like the MC-10024 chip, with its support for DTCP, broadcast-flag and on-chip Authentication/Key Exchange (AKE) transactions, are allowing OEMs to easily and quickly design in support for DRM (digital rights management) into their emerging products.”

NEC Electronics’ MC-10024 Device and Copyright Protection
IEEE 1394 AVLink devices such as the MC-10024 chip, use DTCP as a safeguard to prevent the unauthorized copy and distribution of copyrighted digital programming.  Most other DTCP-compliant solutions require interaction with the system CPU to authenticate the AKE transaction, increasing exposure of copyrighted data to hackers by requiring the data to move across buses within the system.  However, as the MC-10024 chip features integrated 1394 AVLink support, AKE transactions are handled on chip, reducing the exposure of secure data within the system.  To offer further copyright protection, the MC-10024 device will fully comply with the broadcast-flag standard once it is ratified by the United States’ Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Broadcast flag will allow content owners to set copying limitations on their U.S. broadcast content.

Availability
Samples of the MC-10024 chip are available now with volume shipments scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2005.  Availability is subject to change.

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