IDT at CES : Touchscreen Controllers and Display Port Solutions

Home theater enthusiasts might identify IDT (Integrated Device Technology) with the HQV benchmark and video processor. That division of IDT was sold off to Qualcomm last September. But, that didn't stop us from stopping by IDT's CES suite to understand the reasons and also find out more about the products introduced by them at CES in the CE market.

While application processor manufacturers get a lot of attention for their SoCs, a good CE product needs more than just a good app processor. How many times have we seen a good tablet let down by sub-standard touchscreens or bad audio? It is quite interesting to analyze the mixed-signal ICs behind these technologies. IDT provides multiple mixed-signal solutions for touchscreens, audio codecs, video display controllers and power management solutions.

Capacitive Touch Controllers

Last year, IDT demonstrated the first PureTouch capacitive touch screen controllers, and this CES, they showed off a few design wins.

 

The Hanvon e-Reader (popular in the Chinese market) uses two LSD6107 controllers to provide the two sliders on either side of the e-Ink screen.

This year, IDT launched and demonstrated their next-gen PureTouch single layer multi-touch capacitive touch screen controller. Most capacitive touchscreens are dual layer (for a good overview of the various touch technologies available, refer to this (PDF) short course slides). By using a state machine design rather than a microcontroller, IDT claims both power consumption and cost are reduced compared to other competing solutions.

Display Port Solutions

Display Port is stepping up its game by offering more features necessary for the PC market. With eDP (Embedded Display Port), they are also targeting tablet panels (which are predominantly LVDS based right now).

IDT presented two innovations in this space. The first one invovled timing controllers for the PSR (power self refresh) panels which retain a displayed frame in a local buffer and can put the source driver in low power mode if the screen contents are not changing. Thus, the driver doesn't need to really keep refreshing the display's frame buffer again and again. This is part of the eDP 1.3 specifications and IDT is currently sampling this timing controller.

For desktop displays, IDT was also demonstrating a  member of the IDT PanelPort ViewXpand family, the IDT VMM1400 multi-monitor controller. It allows the user to connect up to four monitors with different resolutions over a single Display Port connection. A three monitor setup with this controller was also on display at the Display Port booth.

In addition, IDT also demonstrated some of their power management solutions (where they are trying to integrate more functionality in order to reduce BOM cost of the system) and advances in the audio codec lineup.

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Belkin Brings Home Automation, TV and Thunderbolt Solutions to CES

Belkin's product portfolio stretches across a huge range from A/V and networking solutions to iPod and Kindle cases. Their CES both focused primarily on their home electronics products with a layout aping your average small apartment. We took a tour and previewed some products that are ready to ship, and some still in development.

Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock

This mock-up of their Thunderbolt based dock sat temptingly alone on a desk, awaiting someone with a properly equipped laptop and an array of peripherals to connect. The port selection includes HDMI, GbE, Firewire, 3x USB 2.0, and 3.5 mm audio. Two Thunderbolt ports are present in order to facilitate daisy chaining devices. With a reported 20 Gbps total bandwidth (10 Gbps up, 10 Gbps down) the device will most likely be based on the Eagle Ridge chip. There's a glut of Thunderbolt peripherals at CES, and we're eager to test them out.

Belkin WeMo Home Automation

Several demonstrations were set-up for Belkin's new simplified home automation initiative, including two shipping products. The WeMo Home Control Switch places a WiFi connected switch between the outlet and your small home appliances or lights, allowing you to activate or deactivate them remotely through the iOS-only app. Paired with the switch is an available Motion Sensor that adds additional functionality to the switch. With these early devices, Belkin isn't trying to supplant more advanced home automation systems, simply make it more appealing and more accessible to users. 

Belkin's four other demonstrations indicate the direction we can expect the WeMo line to take. A WeMo Door Lock, in collaboration with Kwikset, would allow remote opening of locks, while retaining a keypad and traditional lock. Perfect for the forgetful person that leaves without their keys. (Ed. note: I need this.) A lighting solution was demonstrated with a outlet connected switch providing wireless control of a WiFi equipped light bulb. This particular demonstration is a favorite among home automation providers. Though not available for demonstration, mock-ups of a remote garage door opener and baby monitor were also available. I question the wisdom of having users pull out their iPhones to open their garage doors while driving home, but the baby monitor seems like a sound application for this line-up. 

Belkin Room Service Docks

Though most of their tablet peripherals are aimed at the iPad, Belkin did have a rather interesting line of docks targeting the Samsung Galaxy Tab family. Featuring Samsung's proprietary 30-pin connector, 3.5 mm audio out with volume control and power connection, individual docks could be placed in different spaces throughout your home and each trigger a different application from the tablet when it is docked. Their concept might involve triggering a recipe app while docked in the kitchen or a music or reading app when docked in the living room. 

Belkin Dyle Mobile TV and ScreenCast

Joining Samsung as a hardware partner with Dyle Mobile, a demonstration of a mobile digital television adapter for the iPad was available. Dyle Mobile TV utilizes spectrum from a consortium of content and broadcast partners to transmit digital television designed for mobile devices. At present the devices require an external antenna, in this demonstration the antenna is formed through a set of headphones connected to the dongle itself. Obviously, this makes for a somewhat inelegant design, but perhaps in the lead-up to release they will find a way to internalize the antenna.

With the ScreenCast TV and AV4, Belkin is trying to bring simplicity and lower cost to place shifting and home theater installations. The ScreenCast TV is their SlingBox competitor, with apps designed for iOS and Android being tested. The device connects via component to your source, say a cable box, and either wired or wirelessly to your network, and then allows you to receive your content stream on your tablet or phone from wherever you have a reliable internet connection. A DVR solution is also being considered which would allow remote scheduling, recording and viewing of content. The product is in the early stages, and the demonstration worked well. Being limited to component, though, means that 1080i and two-channel audio are the best that can expected. 

The ScreenCast AV4 is a product closer to production ready, and will appeal to those interested in keeping a clean and tidy TV viewing experience. The product uses two base stations, a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter can connect to up to four devices via HDMI and transmits the signals over a 5 GHz band to the receiver which is connected to your TV by HDMI. Audio and video are included in the stream (up to 1080p and 5.1 surround), and in an area where the 2.4 GHz is even more crowded than usual, the demonstration had no difficulties.  

Belkin N900 Dualband Router

The only new networking product Belkin had on hand was sadly not an 802.11ac device. The dualband N900 does bring specified performance parity to devices from Cisco and Netgear with the ability to transact up to 450 Mbps of data on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands simultaneously for a total throughput of 900 Mbps. The 3x3 router includes Belkin's latest QoS implementation, four GbE ports, and 2x USB 2.0 ports for attaching storage or printers. The router won't be released till April and will be expected to retail for less than $200.  

Gallery: Belkin Brings Home Automation, TV and Thunderbolt Solutions to CES

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Sociocast Raises $1.5 Million For ‘Big Data’ Analytics Solutions

Sociocast, which provides 'Big Data' analysis and human behavior prediction software to marketing and advertising decision makers within companies, this morning announced that it has closed a $1.5 million funding round before going after a larger financing round in 2012. The bridge funding was provided by Detroit Venture Partners and angel investors Bobby Yazdani, Joe Zawadzki and Doug Imbruce.]]>

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