Silicon Image today announced two new VastLane High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) transmitter chips that enable PC manufacturers to drive their digital output to PC monitors and HDTVs from a single transmitter.
According to the company, the VastLane SiI1392-3 and VastLane SiI1932-3 offer performance of up to 340 megahertz (MHz) or 10.2 gigabits per second (Gbps), letting them support monitor resolutions up to WQXGA (2560 x 1600 pixels) or HDTV resolutions up to 1440p. The previous generation of HDMI chips for PCs operated at up to 165 MHz, which limited them to monitor resolutions of UXGA (1600 ? 1200 pixels).
The VastLane SiI1392-3 and VastLane SiI1932-3 let PC makers use a single digital transmitter to connect to the large installed base of PC monitors with Digital Visual Interface (DVI) inputs and HDTVs with HDMI inputs, along with future PC monitors expected to incorporate HDMI. These transmitters handle a broad range of PC applications ranging from corporate desktop PCs to home media PCs and notebook PCs to retail graphics cards.
According to Brad Garofalo, product marketing manager for PC products at Silicon Image (Sunnyvale, Calif.), VastLane SiI1392-3 and SiI1932-3 are available at the same price point as their predecessors, but include advancements like hardwiring functionality that typically requires a separate discrete microcontroller and discrete transmitters directly into the devices' firmware, making them easier and less costly to implement.
"These products allow a board designer or mother board designer to place HDMI into their product at a very low price point," Garofalo said.
PCs with HDMI connectors allow consumers to transmit the highest-quality premium digital audio and video content, such as high-definition movies from HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc drives and HDTV tuners, to HDTVs and other displays.
The VastLane SiI1932-3 supports a TMDS (Transition Minimized Differential Signaling) input interface from discrete graphics processing units (GPUs), while the VastLane SiI1392-3 supports Intel?s SDVO interface with integrated graphics controller chipsets. Because HDMI is backward compatible with DVI, these transmitters give PC makers the maximum flexibility of being able to interface to any digital display, from existing DVI LCD monitors, HDTVs and projectors to future low-cost all digital PC monitors with DVI or HDMI inputs. In addition, PCs integrating these transmitters can be designed to meet Windows Vista Premium requirements and to be fully compliant with the latest High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) 1.2 specification to transmit premium HD content.
The new transmitters also enable system-level cost reduction compared to currently-available HDMI solutions by integrating functions that normally require a discrete microcontroller in addition to the discrete transmitters.
The VastLane SiI1392-3 and SiI1932-3 are packaged as 64-pin lead-free quad flat packs and are currently available for sampling. Specific pricing information was not disclosed .