CrestaTech Announces 4th Generation Smart Tuner; The X7 for Flat Panel TVs

SANTA CLARA, Calif. & LAS VEGAS --(Business Wire)--

CES (News - Alert) 2013-Today, CrestaTech announced the X7 Smart Tuner™ line of integrated circuits, marking the fourth generation of the Smart Tuner™ family and the first product offering since CrestaTech's purchase of select Xceive Corporation assets, intellectual property and patents. The CrestaTech Smart Tuner™ architecture reduces the cost and complexity of designing flat panel TVs and set top boxes by combining a frequency agile high-performance RF front-end with a DSP-based IF processor that maintains field-proven performance across diverse real-world television signal conditions.

X7 smart tuner chip (Photo: Business Wire)

"The CrestaTech X7 Smart Tuner™ is smaller, better and smarter than previously available silicon tuners - at roughly half the cost," said Torbjorn Folkebrant, CEO of CrestaTech. "With the X7 Smart Tuner™, TV makers can leave outdated 'CAN' tuners behind once and for all and globally deploy high-quality TVs and set top boxes."

Implemented in a low-cost CMOS process, the CrestaTech Smart Tuner™ X7 supports all worldwide transmission standards in a single unit. In addition, the extensive library of captured field signals enables the Smart Tuner™ X7 to handle the most extreme cases of distortion, interference and noise conditons found anywhere in the world. This versatility enables global TV manufacturers to significantly lower costs by stocking a single silicon tuner, rather than multiple 'CAN' tuners to accommodate different regions. It also ensures that TVs using the Smart Tuner™ X7 will always deliver exceptional picture quality in any worldwide location.

"The X7 Smart Tuner™ improves the performance and features of previous Smart Tuner ICs," added Folkebrant. "Our sub GHz domain expertise continues to lead the industry, especially in areas like superior immunity to WiFi (News - Alert) and LTE interference without the need for bulky or costly shielding. CrestaTech is well positioned to further penetrate the 500 million unit TV/STB market and expand into smart devices like smartphones, tablets and media players."

About the Smart Tuner™ X7

Smart Tuner™ technology is found in many of the world's top five global TV manufacturers. The new Smart Tuner™ is ideally suited for premium model TVs. Major benefits of the product include:

Full broadband tuning: 42MHz to 1002MHz
Field proven patented Smart Tuner architecture with upgradeable firmware
Built-in DSP with specialized algorithms for most signal impairments
Support for all worldwide digital and analog standards
CPU calibrated LNA and mixers for performance across entire frequency spectrum
Excellent performance across the entire frequency spectrum
Fully integrated and low system cost
Small surface-mount QFN package
No active external components
No balun transformer required
Can be used in any TV design in all global regions
Optimized for chip-on-board applications
Excellent immunity to interference, especially WiFi and LTE (News - Alert)

The Smart Tuner™ X7 is available now for evaluation. For more information about the SmartTuner™ or to book a private meeting with CrestaTech at CES in LVH North Tower, Suite 5-121, email sales@crestatech.com.

About CrestaTech

Located in Silicon Valley, CrestaTech (www.crestatech.com) is the creator of the Smart Tuner™ products necessary for excellent reception of any worldwide TV broadcast signal. Smart Tuner™ ICs feature a patented architecture comprised of precision RF analog front-end plus digital signal processing techniques. Smart Tuner™ products feature flat and consistent frequency response, the ability to handle diverse and extreme signal conditions, and are fully immune to LTE and WiFi interference all without the need for external filters or shielding. Smart Tuner™ ICs are found in many of the world's leading brand flat panel TVs, and will soon be available for mobile devices and tablet PCs.

CrestaTech, CrestaTV, Xceive, X7 and SmartTuner are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cresta Technology Corporation.