Horizon introduces dual channel chip

Horizon Semiconductors has launched what it says is the first system-on-a-chip that can enable dual channel 1080/60p decoding, encoding and transcoding for devices that support Blu-ray and HD DVD formats.

Horizon's Hz7120 HD-DVD/Blu-Ray SoC supports native high-definition 1080/60i and 1080/60p profiles for encoding and decoding.

It also is capable of working with audio compressions standards such as Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD.

"Consumers are not sure which player format will prevail, and will wait for a lower cost native 1080p60 universal HD-DVD/Blu-ray playback and recording platform," Amir Morad, president and chief executive at Horizon Semiconductors, commented.

"Consumers also want the flexibility of watching content wherever they like, and will therefore naturally prefer devices incorporating higher quality, low bit-rate transcoding and integrated iVDR support, as offered in Horizon's Hz7120 SoC."

It comes with a reference hardware platform. Horizon says that this will quicken up the OEM/ODM development cycle significantly.

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