Last April, LG Electronics made a splash at NAB with its prototype ATSC mobile TV tuner in anything and everything mobile. So you might expect that by this time we'd be hearing more about this first-out-of-the-box RF tuner from the "co-developer of the technology at the heart of the ATSC Mobile DTV standard," LG Electronics.
You would be wrong.
LG sent out a press release on PR Newswire last month in which the company "applauded the rapid adoption of the flexible new standard" and noted that "to support the commercial launch of ATSC Mobile DTV receivers, mass production of the LG2160A semiconductor chip that will be used by LG and other manufacturers is underway." That's it. End of story. A search of LGE.com on "LG2160A" returns, “Sorry, no search results were found for LG2160A.”
With no more recent enlightenment on offer, you can download the April 2009 preliminary LG2160A data sheet. LG says the single-chip tuner is being tested in prototype GSM and CDMA phones and reportedly will show up in a portable DVD player sometime next year.
Not to be outdone in the obfuscation department by its fellow Korean industrial giant, Samsung is equally secretive about what it's calling "the world’s first single-chip-compatible [solution] with the newly approved North American mobile digital TV broadcasting standard," which the company announced on Business Wire the same day as LG's announcement hit the wires.
Like the LG2160A, the 65nm S3C4F61 system-on-a-chip is MIA on the corporate Web site, save for this cryptic message: “For more details about product specifications or technical files, please inquire through 'Contact us.' Some information may be limited to the authorized person or company.” What information there is about the S3C4F61 can be found deep inside Samsung's Web site.
