Future Waves and SunplusMM Launch Low Cost MP3 Player with DAB, FM and T-DMB Functionality

2 years 7 months ago

Future Waves announced today that it has firmed up a strategic partnership with SunplusMM. Both companies plan to launch a MP3 player which supports DAB, FM and plug-in mobile TV (T-DMB) this summer.

Sunplus mMedia Inc. is a fabless semiconductor supplier focusing on SoC designs for multimedia processors (audio/Video codecs) and baseband ICs for mobile device applications. Future Waves is known as a market leader in RF solutions for digital broadcasting. The collaboration will introduce a price-friendly and low power DAB/T-DMB/FM/MP3 portable receiver to the market.

President of SunplusMM, Mr. Yarn-Chen Chen, says “In April 2007, SunplusMM was officially spun off from Sunplus Technology, the leading consumer electronic solutions provider which generated NT$19 billion (US$575 million) in 2006, to satisfy the increasing demand of solutions for personal appliances. In the fast-growing portable consumer electronics market, we foresee a vast potential for digital broadcasting applications. Through Future Waves’ strong technical support and superior solutions for digital broadcasting, SunplusMM can rapidly enter the digital broadcasting market with a highly competitive product.

Glenn Vandevoorde, CEO of Future Waves, indicates “SunplusMM has very strong expertise in providing IC solutions for handsets and personal entertainment products. Their product portfolio, combined with our FENIX solution for digital broadcasting solution, now enables our customers to launch portable consumer products with the lowest power consumption and cost, without compromising on functionality or quality.” Glenn adds, “The introduction of such a cost-effective solution will definitely be a breakthrough in the industry and broaden the consumers’ adoption.”

The new portable FM/DAB/MP3 device receives Band II, III and L-band signals on the move with support for MP2, MP3 and WMA digital audio decoding. There is also a SD/MMC card interface to play back MP3/WMA songs from flash memory. It provides a USB interface to PC and a software based H.264 video decoder for watching T-DMB programs.