Re: "HD Radio on the Offense"


"Telamon" <telamon_spamshield@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:telamon_spamshield-FB5A13.00293619032007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <ryoLh.10951$jx3.7635@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"David Eduardo" <amdavid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

" SiPort expects to formally announce the chip's availability this
summer, with mass production by fall, and perhaps the first products
based on the device on store shelves for the 2007 holiday buying
season."

This means they are planning to produce small quantities of engineering
samples (prototype) in the summer so the part is vaporware until that
time. It does not exist yet. Can you understand that?

The prototype is working, and has been demonstrated in small quantitites.
Per the HD Consortium, there are already orders.

Siport is a fabless semiconductor maker. This means they contract out
the actual chip making process. I expect that they will also contract
out the packaging of the chips.

Look who owns it. It is hugely capitalized.

And most chip designers farm out the actual chips to fabs in Asia, This is
no revelation.

This is an ambitious design and I'll be surprised if it does not have
problems that will require revisions. Revisions mean delays and extra
costs.

It's working now.

They are producing this new design in CMOS, which will save power over
previous silicon using germanium. I do not expect their claim of CMOS
using only 10% of the power over that of the previous SiGe designs. I
expect more along the lines of 50% power savings.

It's been measured at 90% of the power usage.

It costs a lot of money for a new ASIC design, probably $500K to $1M
dollars. This cost has to be amortized over the life span of the part.
Obviously the greater the quantities bought from them will allow the
cost per chip to drop.

$1 million is less than the investment of one company's LA cluster in HD.
It's a tiny amount. It's the average cost of a home in the San Jose metro.
It's nothing.

Oddly the article refers to a module that the chip needs to go into.
This indicates that the entire IBOC system is not on the chip and it
needs support parts.

Yeah, it needs an amp and stuff like that. It is not a "radio on a chip" and
still requires amplification and such.


.

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