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January 2012 EE Times Confidential

EXTRA!

Interview: Phil Carmack, Nvidia's Mobile Honcho
We sat down with Phil Carmack, Nvidia's general manager of mobile, to discuss the outlook for quad core, extending ARM cores, the future of graphics and much more.

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LAY OF THE LAND

January 2012

SoC Providers Adjust the Picture On Their DTV Strategies

SoC Providers Adjust the Picture On Their DTV Strategies
The rise of MediaTek and MStar in digital TV and set-top chips over the last several years has rocked the global consumer chip industry. When the DTV SoC business cratered last year, some high-profile IC providers fled the segment, presumably concluding that chasing the two Taiwan-based competitors’ doggedly downward pricing model was no longer worth the effort. We take a look at the companies that might stay and fight.

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gopalm

Why have Taiwanese vendors been successful in the TV SoC business but not (yet?) in the STB SoC business?

1/24/2012 1:16 AM EST

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jameszhou2000

I don’t have the numbers for comparison but I suspect that STB SoC business is significantly smaller than TV SoC business. The more important factor I believe is the differences in customization of the system (both software and hardware) … when Mstar finished a design with one lead customers, they usually duplicate the system with many other customers with little customization … so essentially regardless of the brand, distribution regions for almost all the TV we buy they all pretty much running the same software (similar enough) on the same silicon. I don’t think that’s the case for STB business. Higher development and customization in STB is more significant than TV designs as requirements for STB is quite different from region to region. For Mstar business model, they need volume and quick-to-market for their silicon to make money. I don't think the software effort for STB makes sense to them.

I believe they can still do it, but they are just not interested.

1/30/2012 3:52 PM EST

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