Mobile TV chip maker Siano Mobile Silicon has unveiled its SMS118X Mobile Digital TV (MDTV) receiver chip, which targets Chinas domestic Mobile TV market. The chip, scheduled to debut in hand-held consumer applications at the Olympics Games this summer, supports the Chinese Mobile TV standard, CMMB.
CMMB (aka S-TIMI) is the technology developed in China and selected by the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) as the main platform for delivering TV services to mobile devices. The CMMB network will use both satellite and terrestrial signals, to obtain effective coverage both in densely populated cities, including indoor reception, as well as in sparsely populated rural areas.
The pilot launch of Mobile TV in China, broadcast in more than 30 cities over a UHF spectrum band, will be at the Olympic Games in August this year. Full commercial deployment, including satellite transmission and a conditional access system, is scheduled for early 2009, prior to the Chinese New Year. 
We are delighted to have Siano launch its high performance single chip solution for CMMB, says Ms Sun Zhaohui, Deputy Director of SARFT. In order to successfully promote (the) CMMB service and enable more consumers to watch TV anywhere anytime, we welcome Siano Mobile Silicons support of the CMMB standard as they begin to provide us with high performance CMMB receiver chips.
There are two versions of Sianos new CMMB chip. The SMS1185 supports antenna diversity for both the terrestrial UHF signal and the satellite S-band signal. In other words, the chip can be connected to two UHF antennas and two S-band antennas, for maximum performance.
The lower-cost SMS1180 supports only one antenna per each spectrum band. Siano says that both solutions exhibit high sensitivity, excellent mobility performance, extremely low power consumption and the highest level of component integration. It adds that recently-conducted field trials in the leading major Chinese cities showed a clear performance advantage of the SMS118X over existing competing solutions.
We estimate a very large market for Mobile TV in China,” says Siano CEO, Alon Ironi. We expect adoption rates similar to those seen in Japan and Korea, but with much higher nominal volumes, given the larger population of China and its popularity for multimedia-enabled devices. The SMS1180 clearly positions Siano in the leading position of this new, exciting market.
The SMS118X is available now at sample quantities, with volume production starting in August. The chip comes bundled with software drivers for Windows XP/Vista, Linux, Nucleus, and Windows Mobile.