Sigma Designs

Sigma Designs, Inc., was an American public corporation that designed and built high-performance system-on-a-chip semiconductor technologies for Internet-based set-top boxes, DVD players/recorders, high-definition televisions, media processors, digital media adapters, portable media players and home connectivity products. In addition to platform processing and home network hardware, Sigma Designs also offered engineering support services and customized integrated circuit development.

The company developed products for the following connected media platforms: IPTV (video over IP) set-top boxes, TV media players (such as Blu-ray), HDTVs, multimedia players, digital media adapters, portable media players, and home networking products, such as HomePlug AV, HomePNA and G.hn. Sigma Designs owns the intellectual property and was one of two chip makers for the Z-Wave home control technology. Sigma had alliances with other technology companies, including Microsoft,[1] and their products are found in stand-alone full HD multimedia players.[2]

Product divisions

Sigma Designs provides system-on-a-chip (SoC) products to deliver entertainment and control to consumers:

Media and video processing

On July 9, 2010, Sigma Designs announced its media processors were used by French company, Free Inc., to deliver the first 3D broadcasts of the World Cup, as well as Europe’s first ongoing 3D content.[16]

Sigma Designs offers media and video processing technology, with the SMP8910 and SMP8670 processors, introduced at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show.[17] The 2011 technology offered VXP video processing to clean up artifacts and picture quality on High Definition and 3D content. Although the 8910 chipset was announced at CES (January) 2011, no implementations of this chipset seemed imminent until September 2012. In September 2012, Syabas demonstrated its new Popcorn Hour A-400 media player using the 8911 non-macromedia version of the 8910 chipset at IFA 2012 and Cedia 2012. It is expected to start shipping November 2012.[18][19]

Home AV Networking

Sigma Designs' AV Network products include:

In June 2011, Sigma announced an “Ultra-Thin Set-Top Box” reference platform named Skini that provides over-the-top content along with over-the-air and cable functionality.[24][25]

HomePNA and HomePlug AV products use existing wires in homes (coaxial cable, phone lines, or AC power lines) and deliver as much as 200 Mbit/s of throughput. These are marketed with what the company calls ClearPath technology which avoids noise on typical power lines.[20] As of November 2010, Sigma Designs shipped more than 20 million HomePNA chipsets.[21]
Sigma announced G.hn products in October 2010 claimed to be capable of delivering up to 3 Gbit/s.[22]

Home control

Sigma Designs develops and markets the Z-Wave protocol for home control. Z-Wave is a wireless radio frequency communications technology designed for control and status reading applications in residential and light commercial environments. Z-Wave has an alliance and more than 1,500[26] interoperable products in a certification program. On May 23, 2011, Sigma announced Japanese manufacturer Mitsumi as a licensed second source for Z-Wave technology.[27] The company secured Verizon as a partner, with the telecom giant expected to roll out home control and security services through Z-Wave in the fall of 2011.[28]

type	Public
foundation	1982
defunct	April 18, 2018
fate	liquidated
location	Fremont, California United States
industry	Semiconductor
products	System-on-a-chip
homepage	sigmadesigns.com

History

Acquisitions

Product divisions

Media and video processing

Home AV Networking

Home control

Xvid controversy

See also

External links

References