The first topic that we discussed with Sigma Designs was HDR technology. Sigma was the first company to support Dolby Vision technology in its SoCs and both TCL and Philips have shown sets that support the technology. However, the company has another design win from another significant TV brand, but was not allowed to release the name at CES.
The main news at the show for us was the launch of the STV7703 SoC for UltraHD TVs. Features include support for 60Hz TVs (and can be used with an FRC chip for 120Hz sets) and features:
- 4K Ultra HD (UHD) resolution with High Dynamic Range and Wide Colour Gamut capabilities
- HEVC (H.265) UHD 10 bit video decoding at 60fps
- Google VP9 UHD decoding
- Trusted Execution Environment and ARM Trust Zone support for content protection
- Integrated UHD HDMI v2 receivers with HDCPv2.2 content protection
- Integrated Civolution NexGuard forensic UHD watermarking Technology to curb content piracy
- Support for Android and Linux operating systems, as well as pre-integrated software for TV middleware, DRM, HTML5 browser engine and other software packages to build TV sets or other display products
The new chip features quad core Arm CPUs and quad core GPUs.
We have reported on the developments with Roku TVs and Sigma is the Roku partner for the chips in the sets. (Roku Announces New TV Wins and UltraHD Platform)
Other topics being discussed were the Sigma powerline technology and Z-Wave wireless home control chips.
