China builds digital TV chip

The Fudan University in Shanghai has claimed that it has turned out China's first ever home made digital TV chip in collaboration with two domestic companies.

The chip, known as 'Zhongshi No 1', which integrates more than 70 storages, two million logic gates and 20 million transistors, has outperformed European and American products in terms of sensitivity and anti-jamming capacities at far lower costs, Xinhua news agency reported.

The chip was made by Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, according to Zhou Dian, President of the School of Microelectronics at Fudan University, independent designers of the product.

The chip was based on China's DMB-T standard and has outdone European and US standards for experimental broadcasts of digital TV, respectively known as DVB-T and ATSC, in terms of definition, Zhou said.

He said a dozen Chinese manufacturers, including Changhong, TCL, Skyworth and Haier, have integrated the new technology into their products.

Central China's Henan Province has applied the new technology to launch mobile TV programmes, and at least 10 other localities -- including Beijing, Tianjin and Guangzhou -- have reported success in trial operations.

The chip embodies the core technology for the new generation high-definition television that has been the focus of research and development for many countries since the early 1990s.