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Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. (TAEC) today disclosed details of the technical innovations that enabled the recently announced WebTV Plus Receiver. Boasting an unprecedented integration between the television and the Internet, these new systems will enhance viewing pleasure by providing a wider variety of interesting information and entertainment directly to the television.

"Toshiba was selected as an ASIC partner because of our competitive ASIC offering including the cores and I/O required for WebTV's current system while our technology roadmap supports WebTV's long-term system level integration requirements," said Larry T. Jordan, senior vice president and general manager of Toshiba's System IC Division (SID). "The WebTV Plus Receiver marks Toshiba's first commercially-announced interactive television application."

"Toshiba's design excellence and innovation are key in enabling WebTV Networks to deliver on its vision of transforming the dynamic television experience from a passive to participatory medium," said Tim Bucher, vice president of platforms engineering and operations of WebTV Networks Inc. "With market first features from the WebTV Plus Receiver, we've succeeded in seamlessly merging information from the Internet with the familiar television to deliver a significantly enriched viewing experience."

Toshiba's contribution to this new system includes an ASIC based on the 0.3 micron TC220E embedded array technology and the 16Mb SDRAM (TC59S1616ATF)- 10. The ASIC integrates an analog phase lock loop, a three-channel 60 megahertz (MHz) DAC, several blocks of high speed SRAM and WebTV's proprietary logic in a 420-pin TBGA package. The TBGA package provides a cost-effective solution due to its 62 micron pad pitch while also providing higher thermal performance than traditional plastic BGA packages. Toshiba's ASIC provides the WebTV Plus Receiver with the ability to modify Internet data for the television. The system takes graphic-rich information like video clips, directly off the Internet and translates it into a format that can be viewed by a standard television.

TAEC is the North American manufacturing, sales and marketing arm of one of the world's largest suppliers of semiconductors, integrated circuits and electronic components for industrial and consumer applications. The company is the recognized leader in CMOS technology and has one of the broadest IC product lines in the industry. In addition, Toshiba is a leading manufacturer of technologically advanced electron tubes and solid state devices, including color picture tubes, display monitor tubes, liquid crystal displays, medical tubes, rechargeable batteries, microwave components, laser diodes and optical transmission devices.

The Systems IC Division is located at 1060 Rincon Circle, San Jose, CA 95131. For more company information, please visit TAEC's Internet home page at: http://www.toshiba.com/taec

Source: Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.