Atmel's RF Tuner T4260 Supported by TI to Expand Developer Flexibility, and to Reduce Cost for HD Radio Receivers

Atmel's RF Tuner T4260 Supported by TI to Expand Developer Flexibility, and to Reduce Cost for HD Radio Receivers

Atmel's RF Tuner Front-end IC T4260 and TI's HD Radio Baseband Form a Complete HD Radio Solution

HEILBRONN, Germany and DALLAS, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Atmel(R) (NASDAQ:ATML), a global leader in the development and fabrication of advanced semiconductor solutions, and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:TXN), the leading supplier of digital audio broadcasting (DAB), Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) and HD Radio(TM) basebands, announced today that the two companies will support a complete HD Radio solution with Atmel's T4260 RF Tuner IC and TI's HD Radio digital baseband, the TMS320DRI350, bringing flexibility and performance to HD Radio developers worldwide. With the integrated HD Radio/AM/FM baseband and the HD Radio front end, Atmel and TI are among the few companies offering a complete solution in high-volume production, optimizing overall system performance and cost.

Atmel's T4260 AM/FM RF tuner IC has been certified by iBiquity Digital for use in automotive and home HD Radio receivers. Manufactured using Atmel's advanced BiCMOS technology, it can receive both AM and FM signals. The device offers maximum flexibility to adapt the RF tuner to various applications, due to its capability to output an IF signal in the range of 10.7 to 25 MHz. High performance is backed by a fast fractional phase-locked loop with a lock time of less than 1 ms, including spurious-emission compensation and programmable automatic gain control (AGC). The flexible reference frequency generation saves system cost, as there is no need for an extra crystal. Further cost saving can be achieved by Atmel's patented prestage tuning concept.

The T4260's intelligent VCO concept enables highly sophisticated applications such as phase diversity systems to be easily realized. The requirements of future broadcast applications, such as Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), can be met thanks to the device's high AM performance.

Due to its outstanding features, and flexibility enabled by software control, the T4260 fits perfectly to TI's AFEDRI8201 A/D converter and digital downconverter and its pioneering family of award-winning baseband processors, including TMS320DRI350 -- the only baseband to offer HD Radio and AM/FM baseband processing in a single chip. TI's DRI350 baseband processors, teamed with a second T4260, can be programmed for twin tuner applications, enabling phase diversity, antenna diversity, dynamic antenna direction adaptation, and continuous background reception, further enhancing a distortion-free reception of broadcast stations. Currently, only TI offers a baseband that can take advantage of the performance of the T4260 for HD Radio applications.

The programmable nature of TI's DRI350 devices and Atmel's RF tuner IC T4260 not only enables the combination of HD Radio and AM/FM technology, but also allows OEMs to quickly implement the new features enabled by HD Radio technology.

"With Atmel's economic and technically advanced RF tuner, HD Radio receivers will continue to drop in bill of material cost, further driving the conversion from analog to digital," said Roland Polonio, Atmel's Marketing Manager for Broadcast Radio ICs. "We are proud to announce this new relationship with TI that enables us to provide complete, competitive HD Radio solutions, and helps radio manufacturers to reduce overall system cost for less expensive end products."

"TI is always looking for ways to decrease the overall system cost of an HD Radio receiver and was happy to work with Atmel on this new development," said John Gardner, Digital Radio product manager at TI. "As the only baseband provider to support Atmel's RF, TI was able to join Atmel in providing a complete, cost-effective HD Radio solution to manufacturers."

All components are already in production today. Atmel's RF tuner T4260 is available in SSO44 packages. Pricing starts at US $2.38 each for quantities of 10 thousand or more. TI's DRI350 is available in 288-pin 1MM BGA packages. Sample pricing starts at US $22 each.

Footnote A/D = Analog/Digital AGC = Automatic Gain Control AM/FM = Amplitude Modulation/Frequency Modulation HD Radio = digital AM and FM broadcasting IF = Intermediate Frequency OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer VCO = Voltage-Controlled Oscillator

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions. Focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets, Atmel ICs can be found Everywhere You Are(R).

NOTE: Atmel(R), logo and combinations thereof, Everywhere You Are(R) and others are registered trademarks or trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. HD Radio(TM) is a registered trademark of iBiquity Digital Corporation. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries. Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com/

Information:

Atmel's AM/FM Front-end IC T4260 product information may be retrieved at: http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=2340

Atmel's broadcast radio product information may be retrieved at: http://www.atmel.com/products/Audio/

Press Contacts Atmel Dr. Susanne van Clewe, Marcom Manager Communications and Automotive Products Phone: +49 7131 67-2081, Email: susanne.van-clewe@hno.atmel.com Clive Over, Director of Press Relations - USA and Asia Phone: +1-408-451-2855, Email: cliveover@atmel.com Veronique Sablereau, Corporate Communications Manager - Europe Phone: +33 1 30 60 70 68, Fax: +49 7131 67-2423, Email: veronique.sablereau@atmel.com

Press Contacts Texas Instruments Stephanie Groswirt, Texas Instruments Phone: +1-214-480-2512, email: s-groswirt@ti.com Wes Robinson, GolinHarris Phone: +1-213-623-4200, email: wrobinson@golinharris.com

Source: Atmel Corporation

CONTACT: Dr. Susanne van Clewe, Marcom Manager Communications and Automotive Products, +49 7131 67-2081, or susanne.van-clewe@hno.atmel.com, or Clive Over, Director of Press Relations - USA and Asia, +1-408-451-2855, or cliveover@atmel.com, or Veronique Sablereau, Corporate Communications Manager - Europe, +33 1 30 60 70 68, of fax, +49 7131 67-2423, or veronique.sablereau@atmel.com, all of Atmel Corporation; or Stephanie Groswirt of Texas Instruments, +1-214-480-2512, or s-groswirt@ti.com; or Wes Robinson of GolinHarris, +1-213-623-4200, or wrobinson@golinharris.com, for Texas Instruments

Web site: http://www.ti.com/

Web site: http://www.atmel.com/

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