A federal jury in San Diego found that Broadcom Corp had not infringed two patents for digital video compression owned by Qualcomm.

A federal jury in San Diego found that Broadcom Corp had not infringed two patents for digital video compression owned by Qualcomm. The nine member US District Court jury reached its unanimous verdict after six hours of deliberation, rejecting Qualcomm’s claims of infringement following a nine day trial that included testimony from multiple experts as well as the companies’ chairmen, Broadcom cofounder Dr Henry Samueli and Qualcomm cofounder Dr Irwin Jacobs. In addition to finding the two patents not infringed, in an advisory opinion to the presiding judge the jury found that Broadcom proved by clear and convincing evidence that Qualcomm knowingly violated a duty to disclose its patents to the Joint Video Team, or its parent organisation, during the JVT’s preparation and eventual adoption of the video compression industry standard known as the H.264 standard.

Additional evidence of Qualcomm’s effort to unfairly leverage the H.264 standard emerged during trial, with testimony that the company requested a royalty for a single patent allegedly reading on H.264 that is twice the amount charged by the entire MPEG LA licensing organisation for its pool of 160 essential patents - and with Qualcomm’s attempt to enjoin Broadcom’s future sales of H.264-compliant products.

In a second advisory opinion to the judge, the jury found that Broadcom proved by clear and convincing evidence that Qualcomm committed inequitable conduct before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by breaching its duty of honesty and good faith in dealings with the USPTO.

‘We are obviously very pleased and very grateful for this jury’s diligence in working to arrive at the truth, even when presented with some very complex and intricate engineering testimony’, said David A Dull, Broadcom’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel.

‘This is a victory not just for Broadcom but for the entire digital video community, against an attempt by Qualcomm once again to tax an important new technology - in this instance based on the claims of a single patent’.

‘The trial not only showed that Qualcomm was wrong about Broadcom’s alleged infringement, but also cast a bright light on Qualcomm’s penchant for abusing the rules and procedures of industry standards-making bodies’.

The victory marks Broadcom’s second consecutive win against Qualcomm involving intellectual property issues.

Last autumn, a United States International Trade Commission (ITC) judge ruled that Qualcomm’s cellular baseband chips infringe five claims of a Broadcom patent.

The full commission affirmed that ruling in December and is now considering remedies against many Qualcomm products.

The ITC action was the first of several patent disputes between the companies to go to trial.

Broadcom is now in the final stages of preparing additional cases that go to the heart of its patent infringement disputes with Qualcomm concerning cellular baseband chips.

In March 2007, the US District Court in San Diego is scheduled to try Broadcom’s claims that Qualcomm infringes two Broadcom patents relating to Bluetooth technology in cellular phones.

Then in May 2007, the US District Court in Santa Ana, California is scheduled to try Broadcom’s claims that Qualcomm infringes three additional Broadcom patents relating to cellular technology.

Qualcomm and Broadcom have other, later-filed patent disputes pending in US District Court in San Diego that are also expected to be tried this year.

Following conclusion of the ITC proceeding, expected this March when the Commission is scheduled to rule on remedies for Qualcomm’s infringement, Broadcom will also litigate in the Santa Ana court the same three patents that were tried last year in the ITC.

Altogether, Broadcom currently has infringement claims from 14 different Broadcom patents awaiting trial against Qualcomm.

TSMC has announced consolidated revenue of NT $74.96 billion, net income of NT $27.91 billion, and diluted earnings per share of NT $1.08 for the fourth quarter ended .

TSMC has announced consolidated revenue of NT $74.96 billion, net income of NT $27.91 billion, and diluted earnings per share of NT $1.08 for the fourth quarter ended 31st December 2006. Year-over-year, fourth quarter revenue decreased 5.4% and net income and diluted EPS decreased 17.7% and 17.8%, respectively. On a sequential basis, fourth quarter results represent a 9.1% decrease in revenue, and a decrease of 14.1% both in net income and in diluted EPS.

All figures were prepared in accordance with ROC GAAP on a consolidated basis.

Fourth quarter business was affected by inventory correction, and revenue came to the mid point of the guidance.

Advanced process technologies (0.13um and below) accounted for 48% of wafer revenues with 90nm process technology accounting for 22% and 65nm approaching 1% of total wafer sales.

Gross margin of 46% reached the mid point of the guidance, while operating margin of 36.6% was close to the high end of guidance.

Net margin decreased 2.2 points to 37.2% from the previous quarter.

‘The current inventory correction which started in the third quarter of last year is expected to continue through the first quarter of 2007, but we expect the overall demand of our business to begin to recover by the end of first quarter’, said Lora Ho, VP and Chief Financial Officer of TSMC.

‘Relative to the fourth quarter, the wireless communication segment appears to experience a more severe decline than the consumer and computer segments in the first quarter’, said Ho.

8bit microcontroller is aimed at designers looking to improve performance, lower noise and reduce power consumption in home appliance and industrial applications.

Toshiba Electronics Europe (TEE) has launched an 8bit microcontroller for designers looking to improve performance, lower noise and reduce power consumption in home appliance and industrial applications. Delivering performance comparable to many 16bit alternatives, the TMP89FS60UG combines 60Kbyte of onboard Flash memory with a number of peripherals ideally suited to front panel applications in industrial and appliance designs. The TMP89FS60UG is the first microcontroller to use Toshiba’s new TLCS-870/C1 core, which is capable of processing one instruction per clock cycle and has a minimum instruction execution time of 125ns (at 8MHz and 4.5 to 5.5V).

The result is faster processing at lower frequencies than previous 8bit devices (four times the processing speed at the same frequency).

This leads to reduced noise and lower power consumption.

The core also allows the designer to use up to 128Kbyte of embedded Flash without a negative impact on processing speed or code efficiency.

Peripherals integrated into the new microcontroller include standard 8bit, 16bit and watchdog timers as well as a 16bit timer/counter capable of PWM output.

A high-resolution 16-channel, 10bit successive approximation type ADC is available to process a variety of front panel and system analogue inputs.

Four serial inputs comprise UART, HSIO and I2C interfaces, while analogue inputs for voltage detection and power-on-reset further reduce the need for external components.

Toshiba’s TMP89FS60UG uses Silicon Storage Technologies’ (SST) Superflash technology to implement the 60Kbyte low-cost, highly reliable onboard Flash memory.

Toshiba’s SuperFlash implementation can be programmed much faster than many alternative flash technologies, in addition to offering a high level of pre- and post-production flexibility.

This comes in the form of three distinct programming modes known as parallel mode, serial PROM mode, and in system programming (ISP) mode.

The latter allows upgrades and fixes in the field under the control of the user program.

The TMP89FS60UG is available in a 10 x 10mm 64-pin LQFP form factor.

In addition to the standard Flash-based part, Toshiba can also supply mask versions of the device if required.

An on-chip debug function speeds application development.

Toshiba also plans to launch a comprehensive starter kit that will further simplify evaluation and prototyping of designs based on the new device.

The VN896 digital media mobile IGP chipset is certified Vista Basic-ready by Microsoft and designed to provide users with unsurpassed visual clarity for notebooks and ultramobile devices.

Available now from VIA Technologies, the VN896 digital media mobile IGP chipset is certified Vista Basic-ready by Microsoft and designed to provide users with unsurpassed visual clarity for notebooks and the new breed of ultramobile devices. The VIA VN896 chipset features the VIA Chrome9 HC integrated graphics processor (IGP) featuring a DirectX 9.0 3D accelerator for high performance and a 2D accelerator for productivity applications. The 3D graphics engine of the VN896 chipset offers the industry’s only simultaneous usage of single-pass multitexturing and single-cycle trilinear filtering, providing stunning image quality without performance loss.

Also integrated is the latest generation Chromotion video display engine, featuring advanced video processing, including acceleration for MPEG-2 decoding, and picture enhancement through adaptive de-interlacing technology and video deblocking, all executed in hardware to offset the processor workload.

The VIA VN896 also features versatile LCD panel, CRT and TV-out support, to as high as 1080i high definition, while separate display engines enable two outputs to display at the same time, with different information at different resolutions, pixel depths and refresh rates.

By passing the Microsoft Windows Vista 32bit/64bit Basic logo tests, customers can integrate the VIA VN896 PCI Express chipset into their products with the assuredness of digitally signed drivers and trouble-free installation of Microsoft Windows Vista, including Ultimate, Enterprise, Business, Home Premium and Home Basic editions.

‘As computing increasingly goes mobile, the VN896 mobile chipset offers unparalleled visual quality for a rich digital media experience’, commented Chewei Lin, Vice President of Product Marketing, VIA Technologies.

‘Coupled with its advanced power saving features, it’s an excellent choice for notebooks and even smaller, ultra mobile devices requiring superior performance and extensive peripheral connectivity’.

The VIA VN896’s robust graphics controller implements dynamic CKE and clock grating to minimise DDR SDRAM power consumption and achieve maximum power savings.

The Teridian 73S1217F is a single-chip PINPad smart card reader with power management features and dedicated USB and serial interfaces.

Available now from Alpha Micro Components, the Teridian 73S1217F is a single-chip PINPad smart card reader with power management features and dedicated USB and serial interfaces. The 73S1217F offers a low cost yet feature-heavy combination which makes it ideal for high volume PINPad reader applications. The Teridian 73S1217F is a single-chip smart card terminal solution, optimised to build low-cost, handheld PINPad card readers.

It is particularly suited to combination devices that can be used either in unconnected stand-alone mode or attached to a computer by USB.

This means that personal PINPads, for use in applications such as e-banking or digital identification, can now take advantage of the USB connectivity with almost no impact on the cost, when compared with traditional unconnected solutions.

Other potential applications include transparent smart card and SIM readers, and general purpose smart card readers.

Key advantages of the new Teridian 73S1217F microchip involve reduced bill of materials, larger built-in Flash/RAM than its competitors and a higher performance CPU core of up to 24MIPS.

Flash and masked ROM options are available together with powerful in-circuit emulation and programming with a complete set of ISO7816, EMV4.1, PC/SC, USB and CCID libraries.

The new Teridian 73S1217F is built around the Teridian 80515 core, offering the features of the Teridian 73S1215F with the addition of a DC/DC convertor and several built-in power management features.

When in USB mode, it operates from a single power supply, either the USB bus power or from a set of batteries, and as stand-alone the device uses a 2.7-6.5V power supply.

The Teridian 73S1217F can drive a main system on/off switch, which internally controls the power generation circuit.

In off mode, the circuit typically draws less than 1uA, which makes it ideal for applications where battery life must be maximised.

Teridian provides a free-of-charge CCID reference design including embedded firmware compatible with Windows standard CCID driver, and Teridian’s proprietary CD driver, which supports additional features such as PINPad, display, multicard slots that are not supported by the Windows CCID driver.

This CCID reference design is fully compliant with EMV 4.1 and WHQL(1).

Teridian also offers a specially designed development kit for assessing and testing the 73S1217F, as well as a Flash programmer, which can be used for test on the production line or in the field to program 73S1217F devices through JTAG-like interface, directly on the PCB.

Christos Papakyriacou, Managing Director of Alpha Micro commented: ‘With the increasing rise of Internet fraud and ‘cardholder not present’ type transactions, this new device will be a big help in assisting our customers to develop low cost solutions to combat this serious crime’.

‘Teridian Semiconductor’s extensive knowledge in the arena simplifies the whole process of adopting such technologies and will greatly assist the fight against credit card fraud’.

Freescale Semiconductor has joined the IBM technology alliance for joint semiconductor research and development.

Freescale Semiconductor has joined the IBM technology alliance for joint semiconductor research and development. The agreement includes complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technologies as well as advanced semiconductor research and design enablement transitioning at the 45nm generation. Freescale is the first technology development partner in the IBM technology alliance to participate in both low-power and high-performance technology research and development.

This agreement brings together Freescale’s leadership in key embedded markets, including automotive, networking, wireless, industrial and consumer, with IBM’s success in developing world-class technology and industry-leading systems expertise.

This alliance will enable Freescale to further strengthen its manufacturing strategy.

In addition to leveraging owned capacity in internal fabs and its existing relationships with leading foundry manufacturers, Freescale will have access to the combined manufacturing capacity of IBM’s Common Platform partners.

The Common Platform provides its semiconductor fabrication partners with synchronised manufacturing processes to help ensure the maximum flexibility and lowest development investment for multisource, high volume manufacturing.

‘This partnership creates an exciting opportunity to combine the complementary strengths of Freescale and the IBM Alliance’, said Sumit Sadana, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development and acting Chief Technology Officer, Freescale.

‘This industry-leading technology roadmap will enable Freescale to deliver substantial value to our customers’.

‘Freescale’s addition to the IBM technology alliance is a significant vote of confidence for IBM’s collaborative model and the work we are doing jointly with our technology partners’, said Lisa Su, Vice President, Semiconductor Research and Development, IBM.

‘Freescale will be a valuable addition to our team, with its deep expertise in semiconductor process development and fast growing embedded applications, like automotive, networking and wireless’.

The latest Emma series incorporates in a single chip all the functions necessary to process high definition images, sounds and graphics in HD DVD players.

NEC Electronics has introduced its newest generation of its renowned Emma series of high performance system LSI chips for digital consumer applications. The Emma3 series is optimised for systems such as HD DVD players and recorders that handle the processing of next generation DVD content. The latest Emma series incorporates in a single chip all the functions necessary to process high definition images, sounds and graphics in HD DVD players.

It can process compression formats such as MPEG2, H.264, and VC-1, and offers powerful support for high-level applications by way of two built-in CPUs.

Emma3 is already used successfully in HD DVD players sold by Toshiba Corporation such as the HD-XA2 and HD-A2 in North America, the HD-XA2 and HD- XF2 in Japan, as well as other players designed for Europe and Australia.

NEC Electronics has focused on steadily expanding its offerings in the digital consumer arena, with a particular emphasis on audio-visual systems such as DVD recorders, digital televisions, and set top boxes.

As a result, the company is now a leading force in the industry.

The company shipped over 3 million back-end processing chips for DVD recorders in 2005 and has acquired a greater than 20% share of the global market.

During the same period, NEC Electronics also shipped over 24 million front-end processing chips for DVD recorders and held more than 30% of the global market.

NEC Electronics’ Emma series, based on digital image and sound compression technology, is the company’s flagship series of digital AV devices.

To date, over 20 types of Emma products have been delivered to 50 companies in 12 different countries, with shipments totalling 30 million units.

However, the increasing popularity of image and sound content based on compression formats such as H.264 and VC-1 in HD DVD systems has generated demand for a new Emma series to handle these evolving technologies.

NEC Electronics designed its Emma3 series with these needs in mind, and incorporated the following features.

New high definition video formats such as H.264 and VC-1 that support high image quality, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD audio decoders for superior sound quality, stream processing, and HD graphics processing are all included on a single chip, greatly reducing the number of components needed to build an HD DVD player.

Two CPUs - a 64bit VR5500 application processor capable of speeds up to 654DMIPS, and a 32bit MIPS32 CPU capable of up to 457DMIPS - enable high performance functions such as browsers and data streaming required of next generation DVD systems.

Optimisation for stream processing used in digital broadcast recording, and multichannel stream input and output, allow easy development of HD DVD recorders.

A common platform for playback and recording make it easier to share software for these functions.

The Emma3 series is compatible with NEC Electronics’ platformOViA framework, which enables development using Linux and helps shorten development times through the efficient reuse of software.

NEC Electronics believes the Emma3 series will be instrumental in the development of next generation DVD systems.

The company will actively promote sales of its new line, and continue to develop and expand the series to meet the growing demand from customers and the evolving needs of manufacturers.

Samples of the Emma3 devices are available now, priced at US $200.

Volume production is scheduled to commence in April 2007, and reach approximately 300,000 units per month.

Video-processing IC is designed for format-conversion applications in HDTVs, DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray player/recorders, and AV receivers.

New from Anchor Bay, the ABT2010 is a video-processing IC designed for format-conversion applications in HDTVs, DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray player/recorders, and AV receivers. In addition to featuring Video Reference Series (VRS) Precision Video Scaling II, Precision Deinterlacing, noise reduction and image enhancement, the ABT2010 is Anchor Bay’s first chip to offer OEMs Progressive Reprocessing (PReP) technology. Anchor Bay’s ABT2010 video-processing chip features all the processing power of Anchor Bay’s VRS technologies, including 10bit Precision Video Scaling II that can independently scale an image horizontally and vertically to achieve outstanding picture quality for today’s high-resolution video displays.

The ABT2010 also features HD Precision Deinterlacing, which provides five-field motion-adaptive and edge-adaptive processing for an artefact-free viewing experience.

Noise-reduction technologies reduce the noise caused by compression in today’s digital content, while picture-enhancement technologies increase edge and fine image detail when low-resolution images are presented on high-resolution displays.

The new chip is also Anchor Bay’s first IC to feature PReP technology, a breakthrough processing method that reverts the progressive video signal output from source equipment, such as DVD players, AV receivers, and set-top boxes, to its original interlaced format and then converts the interlaced signal to progressive format using Precision Deinterlacing, eliminating ‘jaggies’, combing and other degrading effects.

PReP technology allows 480p, 576p, 1080p/50, 1080p/60, and other progressive formats that are originally interlaced to be processed by this method.

For an unprecedented viewing experience, the ABT2010 also allows consumer electronics manufacturers to implement VRS RightRate, Anchor Bay’s tearless frame-rate-conversion technology that maintains progressive source cadence; VRS AutoCUE-C, which automatically detects and removes chroma upsampling errors; and VRS Precision AV LipSync, which delays audio to match video-processing delays.

The ABT2010 supports HDMI 1.3 with 12bit output resolutions, as well as passthrough mode for all formats.

‘The ABT2010 is an exciting breakthrough for the video-processing industry’, said Craig Soderquist, CEO at Anchor Bay.

‘For consumer electronics manufacturers, our chip provides PReP, Precision Video Scaling II, Precision Deinterlacing, and the host of VRS technologies in one convenient solution’.

Mazet has joined the Freescale Design Alliance Programme, offering its customers even faster access to the most modern data control technology.

Mazet has joined the Freescale Design Alliance Programme, offering its customers even faster access to the most modern data control technology, along with excellent hardware and software development combined with the knowhow of its own engineers. In the past, Mazet has developed customer specific, embedded, computer modular units for stationary and mobile use, for outdoor situations, for application in automation and medical instruments, as well as in private and commercial vehicles. The Mazet modular units are distinguished by their ability to be easily integrated into existing units, great stability in the face of environmental challenges, and low power consumption.

The implementation of an appropriate operating system such as Linux, VxWorks, QNX, OSE or one of the Windows derivatives is part of the company’s performance package.

The complete performance requirements from the establishment of specifications to delivery of the finished items allows the customer to concentrate on his or her own business and essential competences with the security of knowing that he has a partner on his or her side who is technically competent and experienced in the completion of whole projects from start to finish.

Frank Reklies, Technical Director for Hardware and Software Development at Mazet, said: ‘Our long-time customers value the comprehensive support and high quality engineering’.

‘We measure our performance on the success of those customer’s products that we have participated in achieving’.

LG Electronics earned the overall Best of Show award at last week’s 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) based on universal optical disc technology developed by Broadcom.

LG Electronics earned the overall Best of Show award at last week’s 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) based on universal optical disc technology developed by Broadcom. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) selected LG Electronics’ Super Multi Blue Player (Model BH100) - the first player with both Blu-ray disc and HD DVD playback capabilities - as the show’s overall best product. The Super Multi Blue Player uses the Broadcom universal optical disc (UOD) platform featuring a combined Blu-ray disc and HD DVD system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution.

Blu-ray and HD DVD are the next generation of optical disc formats for recording, rewriting and playing high definition video and digital data.

The market acceptance of these two formats represents a key transition in the home entertainment market and further supports the consumer preference for high definition content.

By combining Blu-ray and HD DVD formats into one SoC platform, Broadcom is enabling global leaders in consumer electronics and mobile communications to provide universal high definition DVD players that can play either format.

LG Electronics’ Super Multi Blue Player is the first to accomplish this.

Broadcom developed its next generation universal optical disc platform to help accelerate the adoption of high definition DVD players.

The UOD platform has an advanced feature set and a flexible optical disc software stack that is compliant with both Blu-ray and HD DVD specifications, providing LG Electronics with a complete hardware and software platform for the design and development of universal DVD players that support both disc formats.

‘Congratulations to LG Electronics for receiving Best of Show at CES.

Clearly our partner’s innovative Super Multi Blue Player is seen as a consumer-friendly solution to the format wars, providing the high definition picture quality benefits offered by both Blu-ray and HD DVD disc formats’, said Peter Besen, Vice President of Broadcom’s Consumer Electronics line of business.

‘Broadcom’s Blu-ray/HD DVD technology, now available in award-winning products from leading companies such as LG Electronics, is well positioned to drive the widespread adoption of high performance, dual-formatted products that consumers want’.

‘LG is very honoured to have earned the Best of Show award at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show’.

‘LG would also like to thank our partner Broadcom’, said Wae Yeul Kim, Chief Research Engineer of LG Electronics Digital Media Research Lab.

‘With Broadcom’s universal optical disc platform and LG’s front-end technology, LG is providing support for both Blu-ray and HD DVD in one player, delivering a single platform that enables consumers to enjoy both formats’.