http://www.necel.com/news/ja/archive/08 ... ml?src=hp1
From Tech-On!:
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NE ... 19/153537/
NEC Electronics Corp announced June 18, 2008, that it started shipping samples of SCOMBO/UM2A, an SoC chip designed for use in Blu-ray Disc (BD) systems that support 8x recording and playback, in Japan.
The company integrated the analog signal processing circuit, which controls an optical pickup unit, and the digital signal processing circuit, which performs data modulation and demodulation as well as error correction, into a single chip. The chip is targeted for use in personal computers and audio-visual equipment.
The company's existing SoC chip, namely SCOMBO/UM, is only compatible with 5x recording and playback. In addition, SCOMBO/UM has the analog and digital signal processing circuits that are provided in separate chips.
This time, NEC Electronics employed a wideband analog signal processing circuit in order to support Blu-ray 8x recording and playback. The circuit was originally developed for use in 20x DVD systems. Furthermore, the company adopted the CMOS technology to produce the analog circuit, instead of using the BiCMOS technology.
As a result, the analog circuit can be integrated with the digital signal processing unit in a single chip. Compared with the company's existing product, the footprint of the latest chip is 20% smaller, and the power consumption was reduced by 33% to 1.8W.
