Taiwan design house to launch single-chip solution for DVD players

In response to the continued decline in DVD player prices, Acer Laboratories Inc. (ALi), a member of the Taiwan PC giant Acer Group, plans to introduce a single-chip solution within the year. "We are going to integrate a DVD servo controller and MPEG decoder into one chip to lower the price," said Eric Hsu, VP of Multimedia and Communication Products Business Division at ALi.

Currently, ALi is one of the major players in the market who offers DVD servo controllers and MPEG decoders. Other vendors such as Winbond and Sunplus provide only one of the two.

Hsu also noted that while North America and Europe have become the top markets for DVD players, the potential of the China market could not be ignored. "Without doubt, China has a huge domestic market. Besides, it is becoming a worldwide production base for DVD players," he added.

Hsu did not provide the detailed timetable regarding the launch of the planned signal chip solution, but emphasized that the chip would simplify the design and save several extra components such as DRAMs and ROMs, a move making the DVD players makers to produce with less cost.

Hsu does not expect the emerging HDD player market, which is largely supported by U.S. companies, to be a factor in the near future. "Both will co-exist, because each targets a different market. HDD players, with a smaller capacity and faster speed, could be used for temporary storage of TV programs," he explained.

Mike Pan

Electronic Engineering Times Taiwan