STMicro, Universal, Airgo<br>to present joint wireless project

Featuring STMicroelectronics STi710X technology platform, UEI's SimpleWare software, and Airgo Networks' True MIMO Media technology the new SimpleWare Home reference design platform allows consumers to organize and play all their personal multimedia content, such as DVDs, CDs, digital audio, digital photos, and digital video at their home entertainment system using only a remote control and provides wireless connectivity with other connected home entertainment devices. Content can be completely centralized and moved freely around the home. All appropriately enabled devices in a home network can connect to a component powered by the SimpleWare Home technology in order to watch home movies in a bedroom, play music in the kitchen, or display photos in the study. The solution features Airgo Networks' True MIMO Media technology to enable streaming of even the richest HDTV content wirelessly to any compatible device anywhere in the home network. “More and more consumers are downloading videos to their PCs or MP3 files to their cellphones, but most have no way of playing this content on their TV or stereo because they can't easily move multi-media content from one device to another,“ said Christos Lagomichos, corporate vice president and home entertainment group general manager of STMicroelectronics. “Now, for the first time, by exploiting the powerful capabilities of ST's STi710X platform, UEI's open and flexible software approach and Airgo Networks' high-performance wireless technology, consumer and automotive electronics OEMs will be able to deliver products that allow consumers to tie all of their home entertainment devices into one virtual network and port content to wherever it is they want to play it.” Designed for demanding set-top box (STB) and DVD applications, the STi710X family of devices is produced in ST's state-of-the-art CMOS process technology, offers the world's first single-chip H.264/AVC and VC-1 decoders and is recognized to be the industry leading fully integrated advanced A/V decode platform. “The SimpleWare Home reference design based on the STi710X technology highlights the capabilities of our software solution,” said Paul Arling, CEO of Universal Electronics. “The combination of STMicroelectronics' powerful multi-media processing and Airgo's faster-than-wired wireless performance removes the barriers that previously hampered multi-media home networking and allows the vision of converged home entertainment to become a reality.” The SimpleWare Home reference design will allow CE manufacturers to offer an all-in-one solution that appeals to the widest range of consumers. The system consolidates the number of components needed in the home entertainment center to enjoy music, pictures, and movies in addition to consumer's personal CD, DVD, digital home movie and digital camera photo collections, all without a PC. “Airgo's faster-than-wired True MIMO chip removes the need for costly and hard-to-provision wires between home entertainment devices and makes a wide variety of home networking applications finally possible. True MIMO completes the digital home vision by providing reliable, high-performance connectivity between devices so that multi-media content can be moved freely around the home,” said Beau Beck, vice president of business development for Airgo Networks. “This new platform from STMicroelectronics and Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) delivers some of the most powerful features yet seen and we are proud that Airgo was able to help bring about this important step in networked home entertainment.” Airgo's True MIMO chipset provides faster-than-wired speeds at range and the reliability necessary to enable content, such as media-rich Internet, large files, video, IPTV, music, photos and games, to be distributed across a wireless network. Offering faster connection speeds than 10/100 Ethernet, it eliminates the need for unsightly and inflexible wired connections between devices in the home, such as routers, laptops, PCs, set-top boxes, consoles and TVs.