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Japan
Volume 82 (Mar 12, 2009)
Elly's Investigative Journal (1): The role of semiconductors in the hottest home appliances: The EMMA2TS system LSI chip for digital terrestrial broadcasting tuners in Japan
Hello! My name is Elly, and I will be using this journal to help you better understand semiconductors and the role they play in the hottest home appliances through interviews with the people behind their development and information on the latest topics. In this first journal entry I will be introducing the EMMA2TS system LSI chip for tuners that will enable viewing of digital terrestrial broadcasting on analog TVs in Japan.
As I'm sure you already know, the shift from analog to digital terrestrial broadcasting is already under way in North America, Asia and elsewhere in the world. In Japan, analog broadcasting will come to a halt on July 24, 2011, marking the complete migration to terrestrial digital broadcasting. Construction of the tower (Tokyo Sky Tree Tower), which will boast a height of 610m when completed, has already begun in Tokyo's Sumida Ward. It is from this tower that digital terrestrial broadcasting radio waves will be transmitted throughout the Tokyo metropolitan area. These days, the overwhelming majority of TVs being sold at electronics retail stores are compatible with digital terrestrial broadcasting, it is clear that steady progress is being made towards the switch to digital terrestrial broadcasting.
And with so many people replacing their TVs with new ones that are digital TV compliant, we may soon be faced with the issue of mass disposal of analog TVs. Yet more than likely there are those who see no need to replace their current TVs and wish they could just continue using them. In fact, despite the large numbers of consumers buying new TVs, it is projected that there will still be approximately 35 million analog TVs in Japan after 2011. Electronics stores are already selling digital TV tuners that make it possible to watch digital terrestrial broadcasting on an ordinary analog TV by connecting the tuner to your analog TV and antenna, but they're a little on the expensive side. All this makes me wonder… shouldn't there be an easier way to watch digital terrestrial broadcasting?
That's where the specifications and guidelines for a "simplified DTT tuner" come in. Formulated by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Association for Promotion of Digital Broadcasting (Dpa), these specifications and guidelines call for only the most essential functions, including multiplex sound and subtitles, thereby making it more affordable to enjoy digital terrestrial broadcasting. And the system LSI chip compliant with these guidelines is EMMA2TS.
Everyone knows a picture is worth a thousand words. That's why I asked to take a look at an actual evaluation board equipped with EMMA2TS. The size of a credit card, it comes with all of the functions necessary for a "simplified DTT tuner." For digital broadcasting signals, image and voice data compressed using the MPEG method are modulated via orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and then transmitted. Once the receiver has demodulated these modulated signals, the MPEG data must be decoded. With traditional receivers, demodulation and decoding typically require two LSI chips and each of these LSI need their own RAM, which means a large number of components. This in turn increases the area of the board and leads to higher costs. But with EMMA2TS, all of these functions are incorporated into a single chip as a system LSI chip.
To get a better understanding, let's compare this with a block diagram showing the use of multiple LSI.
You can see by comparing these diagrams that use of EMMA2TS results in a simple configuration. And by achieving lower power consumption, there is no need for components such as heat sinks, which in turn contributes to lower costs. So basically what it boils down to is that EMMA2TS is the secret to creating a "simplified DTT tuner" that is simple, compact and boasts great cost performance.
NEC Electronics continues on with its development of the EMMA series for digital AV devices such as digital TVs, DVD recorders and set-top boxes, and has made 60 million shipments over the past ten years since sales of the series began. EMMA2TS was developed using EMMA architecture including high-quality MPEG decoder hardware and software. According to the engineers who developed it, "during this development process, all of the functions necessary for a "simplified DTT tuner" were incorporated into a single chip, and a great deal of ingenuity went into ensuring it could be offered at a lower cost, including careful selection of the functions with which the chip would be equipped, adjustment of the quantity and placement of terminals and measures against noise." And it was with great care and hard work that EMMA2TS was developed for the purpose of creating a compact and inexpensive "simplified DTT tuner."
As Japan approaches its complete migration to digital terrestrial broadcasting in 2011, "simplified DTT tuners" are becoming the focus of a great deal of attention, and EMMA2TS is sure to play a big role in the realization of these tuners.
I actually got the chance to watch digital terrestrial broadcasting on an analog TV!
When I heard there would be a demonstration in which visitors would actually be able to watch digital terrestrial broadcasting on an analog TV at Embedded Technology 2008, an exhibition and conference held in Japan back in November, I knew I had to go and check it out. At the demonstration, I was able to view images on a large 29-inch CRT-based television, and according to the engineer there, "they were digital terrestrial broadcasting images." From what I saw, I got the impression that these images were slightly less rough than those of analog broadcasting. The demonstration let me see just how easily digital terrestrial broadcasting can be viewed by connecting the compact EMMA2TS evaluation board between a digital terrestrial antenna and a CRT-based TV.
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