Releases > 2002 >

Frontier Silicon Chorus processor enables award-winning DAB digital radio tuner

London, UK - September 20, 2002 - Frontier Silicon, a multimedia semiconductor business whose core products include system-on-chip (SoC) devices for Digital TV and Digital Radio, is delighted to report that that the PURE DRX-701ES DAB digital radio tuner has won the Product of the Year award in the tuner category of What Hi Fi Sound And Vision Awards 2002. The DRX-701ES is based on the latest highly integrated, third-generation DAB chip, the Frontier Chorus FS1010.

The Chorus FS1010 processor is a single-chip DAB/Audio processor, based on the META™ processor design and Ensigma DAB IP licensed from Imagination Technologies, and enables PURE Digital to create a high-performance, cost-effective DAB tuner that also massively increases on the features available in previous generation DAB products. It is the incorporation of this technology that allows PURE to reduce the price of its new DAB tuner products significantly compared to its previous generation. PURE's acclaimed EVOKE-1 DAB radio - the first digital radio under £100 - also uses the Frontier DAB solution.

Says What Hi Fi Sound And Vision in its awards issue, available from September 19th 2002: "What else could land Product of the Year… if you want a quality home tuner for digital radio you need look no further."

Says Anthony Sethill, CEO, Frontier Silicon: "The advanced capabilities of our Chorus processor, its low cost, and its ability to be integrated into mass market audio products quickly and efficiently, are enabling our customers to produce highly competitive and innovative DAB audio products like the PURE DRX-701ES. We are effectively driving the take up of DAB technology, which is now clearly winning the hearts of both press and consumers. We are delighted to have partnered with PURE Digital to enable its groundbreaking DAB digital radios."

About Chorus FS1010

The Frontier Silicon Chorus FS1010 processor is a super-integrated low-power system on a chip (SoC), which delivers a highly flexible and efficient solution for multimedia and communication applications such as digital radios, portable music players, and home/in-car audio and multimedia. The FS1010 uses the revolutionary multi-threaded META processor core from Imagination Technologies. It integrates on-chip RAM & caches, DAB coprocessors, and a comprehensive range of peripherals. In addition it has extensive applications software and development support.

The multi-threaded architecture of the META core allows the FS1010 to execute multiple real-time multimedia and communication-based DSP tasks, as well as general-purpose activities such as the user interfacing and data storage/filing needed in multimedia applications.

On-chip coprocessors coupled with real-time-aware hardware thread-scheduling enable the FS1010 to run multiple applications including the concurrent processing of digital radio and other multimedia tasks. For example, an FS1010 running at 150 MHz needs less than 30% of its processing capacity to execute the demodulation, decoding, protocol stack and user interface tasks for a digital radio.

The processing power and programmability of the FS1010 enables it to be used for demanding application-specific functions such as surround sound decoding, audio encoding or advanced data service decoding. It also supports secure music and other key-based applications, using RSA to transfer cryptographic keys or other encrypted data held in external memory to internal memory whilst ensuring that the data can only be read by the intended application code.

FS1010 uses dynamic and static power management techniques including fully-static design, clock-gating and inactive period state minimisation for low power usage without compromising performance. The processor clock is generated by a PLL that can be reprogrammed dynamically, allowing power consumption to be minimized for each application.

About PURE Digital

PURE Digital - a division of Imagination Technologies - produces a range of innovative, award-winning products in the consumer entertainment and PC markets. The product range today addresses areas including digital radio; digital home audio; PC graphics / video and audio; and in the future will extend to digital video for TV / DVD and wireless LAN for effective digital media distribution in the home. PURE Digital also designs and licenses advanced production-ready systems for consumer electronics, arcade, gaming and hi-fi companies.
See: www.pure-digital.com.

About Frontier Silicon

Operating at the frontiers of the digital revolution Frontier Silicon is a fabless semiconductor business whose core products include system-on-chip (SoC) devices for Digital TV, Digital Radio and other emerging consumer multimedia products. Frontier's key customers include consumer electronic, automotive entertainment and PDA/mobile phone manufacturers.