SGS-Thomson Microelectronics NV has endured something of a struggle to get its ST20 successor to the Inmos International Ltd Transputer noticed, but in the present climate, there is nothing like a compelling multimedia application to attract attention, even if it is all in the family. It has been working with Thomson-Sun Interactive LLC to integrate the latter’s OpenTV technology with the ST20, which is billed as a 32-bit RISC controller these days, and has created a chip set, including its MPEG2 decoder chip, to be offered OEM to television set-top box manufacturers. SGSThomson has already designed an ST20-TP1 version for DirecTV – the Hughes Electronics Inc direct broadcast satellite system supported by Thomson Multimedia SA, and an ST20-TP2 for the DVB Digital Video Broadcasting standard.
