NXP Launches New Smart Card Reader for Growing pay-TV Market
Industry’s First Competitively Priced Smart Card Interface with NDS Certification
Eindhoven, The Netherlands, August 26th, 2009 – NXP Semiconductors today launched its latest smart card interface – the TDA8034 – a NDS and EMV 4.2 compliant, cost-optimized solution for the pay-TV market. The TDA8034 is the industry’s first low-cost smart card reader with NDS certification and it offers set-top box manufacturers high levels of flexibility. The smart card interface has been designed to read the majority of the viewing cards issued by broadcasters and supports all three levels of smart card classes defined by the ISO7816 standard.
Building on NXP’s heritage in this market, the company has shipped over 500 million reader ICs to date, resulting in the product architecture becoming the reference standard across the industry. NXP’s strength in cryptography and security and its leading position within the markets for eGovernment and Banking has enabled the company to create a smart card reader which supports the required high data rates for the secure communication in these applications.
“The growth in digital TV and the trend towards traditional telecoms providers offering ‘triple-play’ solutions, including TV as well as mobile and broadband services has dramatically increased the number of companies offering pay-TV services.” said Peter Yaxley, Director of Consumer Devices, NDS Europe. “To meet the growing demand for pay-TV, broadcasters are looking for cost-effective technology solutions, including set-top boxes that are able to decode highly encrypted TV signals at a lower cost”
"Since NXP entered the market in 1995, the company has established itself as a leading player and innovator for smart card interfaces in pay-TV and payment applications and has become a trusted partner to the main conditional access providers in pay-TV,” said Chris Feige, general manager, Near Field Communication, NXP Semiconductors. “The shift to digital broadcast has opened a major opportunity for companies offering premium content and new, innovative services. NXP’s latest smart card reader, the TDA8034, is a response to the needs of the industry providing a cost-competitive solution specially designed for set-top boxes, which provides high levels of protection to the smart card and the system in the growing pay-TV market.”
Designed for multiple regions, the TDA8034 is cost-optimized for both the domestic Japanese market as well as the standard worldwide set-top box market. The product has also been designed to consume less power than similar products on the market in both active mode and power-down mode.
In addition to pay-TV the TDA8034 smart card interface can be incorporated into devices such as PCs to provide higher levels of security for logical access, eGovernment and payment applications. The compact form factor of the product can also be used to support encrypted TV on non-traditional devices such as mobile phones.
The TDA8034 is currently sampling with major customers and volume production is starting end of Q3 2009.
About NXP Semiconductors
NXP is a leading semiconductor company founded by Philips more than 50 years ago. Headquartered in Europe, the company has about 29,000 employees working in more than 30 countries and posted sales of USD 5.4 billion (including the Mobile & Personal business) in 2008. NXP creates semiconductors, system solutions and software that deliver better sensory experiences in TVs, set-top boxes, identification applications, mobile phones, cars and a wide range of other electronic devices. News from NXP is located at www.nxp.com.
About NDS
NDS Group Ltd. creates the technologies and applications that enable pay-TV operators to securely deliver digital content to TV STBs (set-top boxes), DVRs (digital video recorders), PCs, mobiles and other multimedia devices. Over 70 of the world’s leading pay-TV platforms rely on NDS solutions to protect and enhance their businesses. VideoGuard® is the world’s market-leading conditional access (CA) and digital rights management (DRM) technology, currently deployed on 107 million active devices, and safeguarding pay-TV service revenues exceeding $40 billion. NDS middleware, including MediaHighway® which enables a host of advanced services for subscribers, has been deployed on 123 million devices. NDS DVR technology, centred around XTV™, leads the global industry with 21 million units deployed. (Deployment figures as of 30th June 2009).
Headquartered in the UK, NDS remains committed to investing in R&D with over 75% of its employees dedicated to pioneering work at development centres in China, Denmark, France, India, Israel, Korea, UK and US. NDS has also implemented a host of initiatives aimed at reducing its carbon footprint and helping digital TV subscribers reduce energy consumption.
NDS Group Ltd. is a private company owned by the Permira Funds and News Corporation. See www.nds.com for more information.
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