General description

The PNX8526 is a highly integrated media processor for use in Advanced Set Top Boxes (ASTB) and Digital Television (DTV) systems. The PNX8526 is targeted at the mid to high-end ASTB/DTV systems, decoding “all format” HD and SD MPEG2 source material with Standard Definition (SD), or double line-rate SD display capabilities. Although the PNX8526 can process high level input formats, its display capabilities are primarily targeted at NTSC, PAL and SECAM televisions. It is also intended for lower cost DTVs, those not considered high definition. Progressive output is also available for double line-rate television displays, or for high resolution graphic content to be displayed on a computer monitor. The PNX8526 is designed in a high performance 0.12-micron process.

Features

■ 200 MHz, 5 instruction/clock cycle 32-bit VLIW processing core (TM32 CPU)

■ 150 MHz, MIPS PR3940 processing core

■ External CPU support via PCI

■ Support for multiple digital video (D1) input streams

■ Support for multiple MPEG2 or DIRECTV transport streams (parallel format)

■ On-chip conditional access for DVB, DES, MULTI2, CAM, DIRECTV

■ On-chip copy protection support for OpenCable™ and ATSC (NRSS-B)

■ Simultaneous decode of two SD streams (MPEG2) or one HD MPEG Stream (AFD style HD-SD decode)

■ Simultaneous decode of two AC-3 or equivalent audio streams

■ High performance 2D rendering and DMA capability

■ Dual image composition/screen refresh engines: four layer primary output, two layer secondary output

■ Multiple channel output to support watch/record and multi-room modes

■ Embedded 1394 link layer with 5C copy protection

■ Soft modem support via SSI interface

■ 16, 32, and 64 MB Unified Memory Architecture implemented with high speed SDRAM (166 MHz)

■ System expansion capability via industry standard PCI bus

■ Core peripherals (I2C, UART, USB, etc.) on the chip, other peripherals supported via third-party SuperIO chip

Applications

■ Advanced Set Top Box (ASTB)

■ Digital Television (DTV)