Frontier Silicon Ltd, a supplier of digital radio technology worldwide, will be demonstrating its latest reference design, Mercury 4i, at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair. Mercury 4i integrates audio features including WorldDMB Profile 1 Digital Radio, CD, iPod/iPhone docking and FM into a single platform, with all of these features controlled by the widely adopted Verona2i DAB/DAB+/DMB-R/FM module, making it easier for audio systems to integrate many functions.
Frontier Silicon’s CEO Anthony Sethill has told radioinfo:
“There is a strong rise in the integration of Digital Radio into CD micro and mini Hi-Fi systems with the attach rate of DAB in this segment increasing to over 22% in the UK over the last year, and this number will continue to grow as countries such as Germany launch their new DAB+ services.
“The Mercury 4i platform has been designed to enable Hi-Fi CD system manufacturers to significantly reduce their BOM costs without compromising their DAB/DAB+/DMB-R radio performance by using the Verona 2i module as the main system controller.”
Using the multi-threaded RISC/DSP processor included on the Verona2i module, the Mercury 4i platform is able to perform the radio reception (DAB/DAB+/DMB-R/FM) while retaining memory and processing capacity. This allows it to perform other functions, such as iPod/iPhone docking and CD control, as these tasks are normally carried out by a separate microcontroller.
Mercury 4i provides a flexible architecture, enabling original equipment manufacturers to modify the design, or use it as a starting point to accelerate development of custom products.
It is provided complete with a full engineering design package, which includes detailed specification, schematics, layouts, bill-of-materials and software. Support is available to customise the platform for individual requirements.
The platform is production ready and needs only industrial design tooling to complete an audio system. It has two CD controller options, the Silan SC9640 (CD to Digital Audio only) or the Toshiba Kowloon-612 device (with MP3 and WMA support).
Frontier Silicon supplies integrated circuits and modules for digital audio receiver products and mobile digital TV. Established in 2001 as a privately funded semiconductor company, Frontier Silicon now has over 140 employees. The company is based in London, with design centres in Cambridge and Shannon and branch offices in France, Germany, Hong Kong, China and Japan. Customers include Bose, JVC and Sony.
A number of Frontier Silicon’s partner brands will have Mercury 4 and Mercury 4i based CD micro systems on retailers’ shelves from the end of 2011.