Horizon Semiconductors

Infobox Company
company_name = Horizon Semiconductors
company_
company_type = Private
foundation = January 2003
location =
key_people = Amir Morad, Co-founder, President and CEO
Leonid Yavits, Co-founder, CTO
industry = Semiconductors
num_employees = 120 (2007)
homepage = [http://www.horizonsemi.com/ www.horizonsemi.com]

Horizon Semiconductors is a major technology innovator and provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable the secured delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment, serving the Consumer Electronics, Broadcast, Broadband Communication and home entertainment markets. Horizon provides the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art, System-On-a-Chip and software solutions to manufacturers of set-top box equipment, professional encoding & transcoding equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products.

Technology

Using unique, proprietary technologies and design methodologies, Horizon designs, develops & supplies complete System-on-a-Chip (SoC) solutions and related hardware & software applications. Horizon’s diverse product portfolio includes solutions for digital cable, satellite and IPTV set-top box (STB), Digital Television (DTV), Blu-Ray player and recorder, Digital Video Recorder (DVR), Home Media Centers as well as professional encoders and transcoders addressing the broadcast market.

Horizon’s innovative rich IP portfolio which includes coding techniques, proprietary algorithms and VLSI architectures have enabled the company to develop a diverse product portfolio, supporting leading compression standards and a wide range of advanced technologies. Horizon’s SoC families offer both single and dual channel HD decoders as well as transcoding & encoding solutions, all operating in real-time and at resolutions up to 1080/60p (1920x1080, 60 frames/sec).

Horizon's SoCs are designed with the highest level of integration, embedding a variety of leading edge technologies including support for compression standards such as: H.264 (AVC), VC-1 (SMPTE 421M), MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, superior display processing, high definition 2D/3D graphics acceleration, multi-channel multi-format audio processing, application CPU, multi-stream high bandwidth transport processing, adaptive noise reduction pre-processing, and a wide variety of advanced connectivity and peripherals. All of Horizon’s SoCs are designed in accordance with world-leading secure processor architectures, enabling complete content protection in compliance with numerous Conditional access and Digital Rights Management schemes.

Horizon believes that one of its key competitive advantages is its broad base of core technologies encompassing the complete design space from systems to silicon. Horizon has developed and continues to build on the following technology foundations:
*Proprietary communications systems algorithms and protocols
*Advanced DSP hardware architectures
*System-on-a-chip design methodologies development for both standard cell and full-custom integrated circuit design
*Proprietary Simulations & Verification tools
*High-performance radio frequency, analog and mixed-signal circuit design using industry-standard CMOS processes
*High-performance custom microprocessor architectures and circuit designs
*Extensive software reference platforms to enable complete system-level solutions

Products

Horizon focuses on delivering semiconductor solutions for communications to the home, enterprise and mobile markets. Horizon’s diverse product portfolio includes:
*Single-chip cable, satellite or IPTV advanced set top box supporting analog front-end, dual channel HD playback, 2D and 3D graphics, advanced display processing and video format conversion for uploading media content to portable players and cell phones.
*Single-chip Blu-Ray player and recorder providing highest levels of visual experience for consumers.
*Professional stand-alone 1080/60p transcoder and encoder ICs.
*A variety of application specific SoC products.

Cable, Satellite & IPTV Set Top Box

Horizon provides industry’s most advanced fully integrated single chip solutions for high definition cable, Satellite & IPTV Set-Top Boxes, DVRs and Home Media Centers.

Hz3120 and Hz4120: Native 1080/60p High Definition Dual Channel Decoder / Transcoder SoC for next generation Cable, Satellite, & IPTV Set-Top boxes.

Hz3220 and Hz4220: Native 1080/60p High Definition Dual Channel Decoder SoC for next-generation Cable, Satellite & IPTV set-top boxes.

Hz4010: Native 1080/60p High Definition Transcoder for next-generation Cable, Satellite & IPTV Set-Top boxes, broadcast equipment, media players, iVDRs and location-free TV.

Blu-Ray

Hz4010: Native 1080/60p High Definition Transcoder for next-generation Cable, Satellite & IPTV Set-Top boxes, media players, iVDRs and location-free TV.

Hz7120: Native 1080/60p High Definition Dual Channel Decoder/Transcoder SoC for next generation BluRay media player and recorder.

Hz7220: Native 1080/60p High Definition Dual Channel Decoder SoC for the next generation of BluRay media player and recorder.

Broadcast

Hz2010: Native 1080/60p High Definition professional encoder IC for the Cable, Satellite, Telco, Terrestrial & Mobile broadcast equipment.

Hz4010: Native 1080/60p High Definition Transcoder for next-generation Cable, Satellite & IPTV Set-Top boxes, broadcast equipment, media players, iVDRs and location-free TV.

*Horizon also offers comprehensive reference design kits. These fully operational development systems include PCB schematics, full software design kit and documentation. Of special interest is the HzR4010, the industry’s smallest form-factor, stand-alone high definition multi-standard transcoder reference platform.

Markets

Horizon aims to acquire a significant market share in the digital set-top box, digital TV, video recorder, Blu-Ray player/recorder and home media center markets as well as significant share in the Cable, Satellite, Telco, Terrestrial & Mobile triple/quad-play broadcast equipment markets. Horizon’s native 1080/60P solutions address both ends of the wire, driving professional equipment as well as consumer electronics STBs, thus enabling video network operators worldwide to provide the highest quality video services anywhere, from the head-end to the set-top box.

Manufacturing

Horizon manufactures products using standard CMOS process techniques. The standard nature of these processes permits the company to engage independent silicon foundries to fabricate Horizon’s integrated circuits. By subcontracting its manufacturing requirements, Horizon is able to focus its resources on design and test applications where Horizon has greater competitive advantages. This strategy also eliminates the high cost of owning and operating a semiconductor wafer fabrication facility.

Horizon products are currently fabricated with 90 nanometer & 65 nanometer, six, seven & eight layer metal structures. Horizon’s engineering team continuously evaluates the benefits, on a product-by-product basis, of migrating to smaller geometry process technologies.

Horizon's key silicon foundry is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation in Taiwan. Horizon's assembly and testing is conducted by several key subcontractors around the world.

History

Horizon was founded in 2003 by Amir Morad, Ms.C. and Leonid Yavits, Ms.C. with the vision of enabling broadband communication and advanced home entertainment by leveraging their combined 24 years of communications IC experience obtained at VisionTech, in the military communications industry, and at the Technion in the academic research community.

External links

* [http://www.horizonsemi.com/ Horizon Semiconductors Homepage]
* [http://www.horizonsemi.com/university_relations.html University Relations at Horizon Semiconductors]