SONY ANNOUNCES THE FIRST i.LINK™ (IEEE1394) LSI
INCORPORATING 5C DIGITAL CONTENT PROTECTION TECHNOLOGY
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 6, 1999 -- Sony Electronics announced today the launch of i.LINK (IEEE1394) LSI
"CXD3200 family" that provides robust protection for digital content transmitted between digital
electronic products, such as digital set-top boxes, DVD players, digital video recorders and digital television
sets.
CXD3201R (link layer LSI) and CXD1945R (physical layer LSI) chip samples are now available for evaluation and
early product development efforts. The sample price of a CXD3201R chip is $50 (U.S.), and the sample price of a
CXD1945R chip is $10 (U.S.).
Sony plans to begin volume production of the i.LINK LSI that integrates the link layer and a three-port physical
layer in one device with U.S. product launch slated for this spring.
"The launch of the CXD3200 family marks the first LSI incorporating 5C digital content protection which we
believe offers the most practical solution for safe and reliable transmission of digital content," said Jodie
Hughes, senior vice president of the Semiconductor Solutions Division at Sony Electronics. "The introduction
of Sony's new i.LINK LSI allows consumer electronics hardware manufacturers to introduce digital content protection
equipped products this year."
The digital content protection method employed by Sony's new LSI is based on the Digital Transmission Content
Protection Method (DTCP), jointly developed by five companies, including Hitachi, Ltd., Intel Corp., Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Sony Corp., and Toshiba Corp. Technical information about the "5C" (for
five-company) DTCP method and licensing information can be found in the Internet at
http://www.dtcp.com.
The newly developed LSI supports the secure, two-way transmission of digital content across the i.LINK (IEEE1394)
interface at speeds of up to 200Mbps. Designed for use in a wide variety of digital electronics products, the chip
reduces the load on the system's microprocessor by internally encrypting and decrypting AV content, such as MPEG data
streams. This allows for robust, high speed protection of high bandwidth content such as video and animation. The
CXD3200 family supports simultaneous transmission of two separate isochronous streams over a single connection. That
allows the recording and playback at the same time, or it can simultaneously transmit two separate isochronous
signals. The chip supports the Program ID (PID) parser and packet insertion functions used by electronic program
guides (EPGs) and other interactive broadcast and network applications. These functions are used to isolate both
individual TV programs and additional service information from the data stream.
The LSI also supports many modes of data interfaces for isochronous communications including dedicated MPEG-2
transport stream input and output interface, IEC958 audio stream input and output interface, and an output interface
to D/A converter. The LSI contains multiple FIFOs to support high bandwidth demand and can accommodate up to 512
bytes of asynchronous communication.
The CXD3201R, packaged in a 144-pin LQFP (plastic), uses a 3.3-volt power supply, ideally suited for low power
applications.
Based in San Jose, Calif., the Semiconductor Solutions Division is a part of the Component Company of Sony Electronics
Inc. Sony is a leading supplier and technology leader in the development of semiconductor solutions for emerging and
cutting-edge high performance markets in multimedia, communications and ultra high speed SRAM memory. The Semiconductor
Solutions Division offers an array of innovative products ranging from memory and multimedia, to communications,
networking and wireless ICs.
Customer contact:
For further information
please call 1-800/288-SONY
or access Customer Support.
