Acer Laboratories (ALi) recently launched its M3351 DVD player single chip, combining DVD player servo and MPEG-2 chips. Company president Chin Wu said that samples have been sent to clients and shipments are expected to begin in the third quarter.
Manufactured on the 0.25-micron process, the M3351 was co-developed by ALi and ESS Technology. With the mutual technology licensing between the two companies, ESS will introduce a similar chip too, only later than ALi’s, said Wu.
As the price of DVD players has been shrinking along with their growing popularity, DVD player manufacturers have become more cost-sensitive as well. To meet this demand, chip designers such as Panasonic, Mediatek and ALi have all started planning to launch servo/MPEG-2 integrated single chips.
|