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New 'Roadster' DAB module from Frontier Silicon puts high performance digital radio into cars

London, 22nd March 2004: Frontier Silicon - the leading fabless manufacturer of semiconductors for digital TV/radio and consumer multimedia products - has today announced a compact new DAB digital radio module for the automotive industry. Its new Roadster module, based on the market leading DAB technology already in use in the consumer electronics market, allows OEM (original equipment manufacturer) fitting of DAB into integrated head units in the car, and is the first to support innovative user features for the automotive environment such as DAB to FM service linking.

The new vertically mounted module is based on the Chorus multimedia DAB processor which is established in the majority of consumer DAB digital radio products, and enables integration of digital audio broadcast functionality into automotive infotainment systems. Typical applications for the new module - which is a complete system featuring Eureka 147 DAB receiver, dual band (Band III and L-band) high performance RF front end, baseband processor and power supply - include integrated head units, automotive DAB modules, telematics and navigation units. The fully shielded module measures only 55mm x 37mm x 8mm to mount inside a 1DIN radio/CD player; in conjunction with its operational temperature range of -40ºC to +85ºC, these features make it ideal for the automotive environment.

Roadster is totally self-contained, containing flash memory for the program and data storage, and additional random access memory for extended functionality. A full suite of firmware included in the module especially for use in automotive includes features available for the first time, such as DAB to FM service linking, TII for regional information, 'Traffic Message Channel' and on-board diagnostics. The DAB to FM linking is essential for seamless audio listening in a car when it moves from an area with DAB service transmission to one where there is no DAB service transmission.

Steve Evans, VP sales, Frontier Silicon, commented, "With the tremendous growth in the market for consumer DAB radios, now is the right time for car makers to seriously consider offering DAB as an option. Our Roadster module provides the automotive market with a cost, size and power-efficient route to integrate this important capability."

The new Roadster module is available for sampling now from Frontier Silicon and will be in mass production in Q3 2004.

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About Frontier Silicon

Frontier Silicon is an award-winning company at the forefront of the digital multimedia revolution with a range of semiconductor solutions for mobile digital television, digital TV and digital radio.

The company develops and delivers both the broadcast signal receiver modules and digital processing circuits as individual chips and complete system modules to leading consumer electronics and mobile phone brands.

As a fabless semiconductor business, Frontier Silicon's core products include complete DAB modules, T-DMB (terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting) solutions, and the underlying system-on-chip (SoC) devices and receiver chips.

Key customers for the company's products include consumer electronic, automotive entertainment and PDA/mobile phone manufacturers such as Bang & Olufsen, Cambridge Audio, Goodmans, Grundig, Hitachi, Ministry of Sound, Philips, PURE Digital, Roberts Radio, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and TEAC. Frontier Silicon has won a number of awards and its products have also enabled award-winning consumer products. The company's awards include the Fabless Semiconductor Association's start-up to watch award, PricewaterhouseCoopers hottest technology company of 2004 award, the World Economic Forum's technology pioneers to watch 2005, and the Tornado T100 award for one of the best-performing and innovative high-tech private companies.

Frontier Silicon uses Meta^TM and UCC^TM intellectual property from Imagination Technologies.