Abstract: An apparatus and method for equalizing analog TV signals includes an antenna that receives the signal data, wherein the signal data comprises a luminance carrier comprising a luminance channel and a chrominance carrier comprising a chrominance channel; an analog-to-digital converter coupled to receiving antenna that converts the received signal data to digital signal data; an instruction memory storing digital equalizer instructions; and a digital equalizer system, coupled to the memory and the analog-to-digital converter, wherein the digital equalizer system processes the digital equalizer instructions to estimate a noise variation of the luminance channel; equalize the luminance channel; and equalize the chrominance channel, wherein the equalization of the chrominance channel is separate and distinct from the equalization of the luminance channel.

Abstract: A system and method for downscaling signal data, where the system includes an antenna receiving video signal data; an analog-to-digital converter coupled to the antenna and converting the received analog signal data to digital signal data; a memory component storing video downscaling instructions; and a video downscaling processor, coupled to the memory component and the analog-to-digital converter, wherein the video downscaling processor, upon reading the video downscaling instructions from the memory component and executing the downscaling instructions: divides the digital video signal data into a plurality of blocks, wherein each block comprises a plurality of pixel elements; and cycles through the plurality of blocks, and for every block in the plurality of blocks, generates a new block, wherein the new block comprises a plurality of new pixels evenly spaced within the new block.

Abstract: A system and method of transmitting video in a time division multiplexing (TDM) system, wherein the method comprises identifying a video reference frame from a series of video frames; encoding a difference between the video reference frame and a video non-reference frame; placing the video reference frame at a beginning of a data burst; transmitting the series of video frames and the data burst from a transmitter to a mobile TV receiver; and the mobile TV receiver immediately locating the video reference frame upon receipt of the data burst. The method may further comprise the mobile TV receiver decoding the series of video frames. Additionally, the placing process results in a substantially non-existent channel switching delay in the mobile TV receiver. Moreover, the method may further comprise placing exactly one video reference frame at the beginning of the data burst. Preferably, the TDM system comprises a mobile TV system.

Abstract: Frame buffer video compression on an input video stream to efficiently allocate and utilize memory used for storing reference frames in a video decoder includes parsing a video header to obtain a maximum number of reference frames (N), dividing an available frame buffer memory to hold [N+1] compressed frames, controlling a compression process to limit a size of each frame such that said size is not less than a frame buffer memory size divided by [N+1], parsing messages that contain reference frames by looking ahead in an input video stream buffer of the input video stream, and allocating memory for compressing a given reference frame based on a number of needed frames at a frame buffer. A quantization of the compression process may be adjusted to improve a picture quality of the input video stream.

Abstract: Enhancing a stream layer transmission for a MediaFLO™ mobile multimedia multicast system comprising a transmitter and a receiver. Code word (CW) computations are performed on a current channel being accessed by the receiver. A favorite channel that a user is statistically mostly likely to switch to on the receiver at any particular time is anticipated. The Overhead Information Symbols (OIS) for each favorite channel is periodically monitored. The receiver remains in a sleep mode while data bursts are received from non-favorite channels, and then wakes up during data bursts of the favorite channel. The same CW computations are performed on the favorite channel as were being performed on the current channel. A cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is performed once the CW computations are performed upon selecting the favorite channel.

Abstract: A digital front-end architecture for television receivers with sigma-delta ADC input. An input digital signal is fed to the architecture and the gain is controlled by a gain stage. In the first method, the gain stage is controlled by a first AGC. Here, the gain is increased if the first threshold value is larger than the magnitude of a complex phase-locked loop (CPLL) output, and the gain is decreased if the first threshold value is lower than the magnitude of the CPLL output. In the second method, the gain is controlled through a second AGC. The gain is controlled by increasing the gain if the second threshold value is larger than a line peak of the moving average filter output, and the gain is decreased if the second threshold value is lower than the peak. The second threshold value and the peak are compared in a peak search block.

Abstract: An optimized semiconductor chip pad configuration. The pad includes a pad circuit area Ap, a first dimension x and a second dimension y, in a chip having N number of pins on each side. The pins include a longitudinal axis, and the chip includes a chip core of length Lc. The method includes determining the first dimension x by dividing the length Lc by the N, determining the second dimension y by dividing the pad circuit area Ap by a result of a division of the length Lc by the N, and creating a semiconductor area pad that includes pins with the longitudinal axis positioned parallel to the chip core. A stack of circuits is designed in the chip to fit in the pad based on the first dimension x and the second dimension y.

Abstract: A technique for providing stable tracking performance to an AGC loop circuit comprises amplifying a wideband radio frequency signal; detecting signals and blockers adjacent to the radio frequency signal; lowering a gain of the radio frequency signal; mixing a local oscillator signal with the radio frequency signal; shifting a frequency of the radio frequency signal from a radio frequency to an intermediate frequency; continuously varying a gain of the intermediate frequency signal; converting the intermediate frequency signal into a digital output signal; comparing the digital output signal with predefined thresholds comprising an upper threshold and a lower threshold; switching a post mixer amplifier (PMA) to a high gain state when an input of a variable gain amplifier (VGA) is greater than the upper threshold, and switching the PMA to a low gain state when an input of the VGA is lower than the lower threshold.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for estimating Doppler frequency in a wireless communication network, wherein the method comprises determining a first correlation coefficient (c1) between a currently received Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) symbol and an OFDM symbol received previous to the currently received OFDM symbol, and a second correlation coefficient (c2) between the currently received OFDM symbol and an OFDM symbol received immediately previous to the OFDM symbol received previous to the currently received OFDM symbol; performing a leaky integration across OFDM symbols of the resulting first and second correlation coefficients (c1, c2) to obtain an estimate of the first and second correlation coefficients; dividing the second correlation coefficient (c2) by the first correlation coefficient (c1) to obtain a correlation coefficient ratio; and using the correlation coefficient ratio as an estimate of the Doppler frequency in the wireless communication system.

Abstract: A technique for iterative decoding between turbo and Reed Solomon (RS) decoders for improving bit error rate (BER) and packet error rate (PER) in a receiver in a wireless communication system comprises receiving data samples comprising turbo encoded packets and RS code words at the receiver; decoding turbo encoded packets of the received data samples using a turbo decoder; decoding RS code words of the received data samples using a RS decoder; feeding the RS decoded data to turbo decoder to perform a plurality of iterations; and correcting data errors present in the received data samples.

Abstract: An apparatus and method of reducing a channel switching delay in TDM mobile television systems, and comprises receiving a data burst associated with channels for reception on a RF channel bandwidth received on a mobile television receiver, wherein the data burst comprises a plurality of RTP packets and a RTCP packet; buffering the data burst upon reception of a first RTP packet; synchronizing the buffered data burst to allow for reception of playable A/V data; and adjusting the synchronized buffered data burst upon reception of the RTCP packet. The method may further comprise performing the synchronizing upon reception of the RTCP packet. The method may further comprise inserting a null packet in the data burst prior to performing the buffering. The first RTP packet is preferably received prior to reception of the RTCP packet.

Abstract: Estimating a current location of a receiver in a MediaFLO™ (Forward Link Only) mobile multimedia multicast system comprises receiving digital signals comprising a MediaFLO™ superframe comprising orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols; performing slot 3 processing of each medium access control (MAC) time unit of a data channel to identify a transmitter identity (TxID) of each transmitter; identifying corresponding geographical coordinates of each TxID; regenerating the digital signals for each of the transmitters using a local-area differentiator (LID) and a wide-area differentiator (WID) of the transmitters; dividing the digital signals by the corresponding regenerated transmitted signal to obtain channel estimates between the receiver and the corresponding transmitters; detecting a first peak in the channel estimates to determine a distance between the receiver and the corresponding transmitters; calculating a time difference of arrival of the digital signals; and estimating a current loca

Abstract: Transmitting data in a digital video broadcasting for handheld (DVB-H) receiver comprises a transport stream (TS) demultiplexer adapted to extract internet protocol (IP) datagrams from TS data packets; a packet identifier (PID) filter adapted to extract the TS data packets based on the PIDs of the TS data packets; a Multi Protocol Encapsulation-Forward Error Correction (MPE-FEC) random access memory (RAM) unit operatively connected to the TS demultiplexer; a Reed-Solomon decoder operatively connected to the MPE-FEC RAM unit; an IP to TS encapsulator operatively connected to the MPE-FEC RAM unit; a TS multiplexer operatively connected to each of the PID filter and the IP to TS encapsulator, wherein the TS multiplexer is adapted to combine both DVB-Terrestrial (DVB-T) and DVB-H TS data packets into a single combined TS data packet; and a host interface operatively connected to the TS multiplexer.

Abstract: An optimized semiconductor chip pad configuration. The pad includes a pad circuit area Ap, a first dimension x and a second dimension y, in a chip having N number of pins on each side. The pins include a longitudinal axis, and the chip includes a chip core of length Lc. The method includes determining the first dimension x by dividing the length Lc by the N, determining the second dimension y by dividing the pad circuit area Ap by a result of a division of the length Lc by the N, and creating a semiconductor area pad that includes pins with the longitudinal axis positioned parallel to the chip core. A stack of circuits is designed in the chip to fit in the pad based on the first dimension x and the second dimension y.

Abstract: Performing real-time compression on an image for target buffer fullness includes dividing the image into N macro-blocks, performing a discrete cosine transformation (DCT) on each of the N macro-blocks, defining a Quantization Parameter Scalar (Q) for each of the N macro-blocks of the image on the DCT being performed, initializing the Quantization Parameter Scalar (Q) for the first Macro-block to a value that correlates to a buffer fullness of a previously compressed image, and monitoring the buffer fullness by comparing the buffer fullness with the target buffer fullness. The N macro-blocks include 16×16 macro-blocks. The Q value is increased to a first new value when the buffer fullness is greater than the target buffer fullness. The Q value is decreased to a second new value when the buffer fullness is less than the target buffer fullness.

Abstract: A digital front-end architecture for television receivers with sigma-delta ADC input. An input digital signal is fed to the architecture and the gain is controlled by a gain stage. In the first method, the gain stage is controlled by a first AGC. Here, the gain is increased if the first threshold value is larger than the magnitude of a complex phase-locked loop (CPLL) output, and the gain is decreased if the first threshold value is lower than the magnitude of the CPLL output. In the second method, the gain is controlled through a second AGC. The gain is controlled by increasing the gain if the second threshold value is larger than a line peak of the moving average filter output, and the gain is decreased if the second threshold value is lower than the peak. The second threshold value and the peak are compared in a peak search block.

Abstract: Frame buffer video compression on an input video stream to efficiently allocate and utilize memory used for storing reference frames in a video decoder includes parsing a video header to obtain a maximum number of reference frames (N), dividing an available frame buffer memory to hold [N+1] compressed frames, controlling a compression process to limit a size of each frame such that said size is not less than a frame buffer memory size divided by [N+1], parsing messages that contain reference frames by looking ahead in an input video stream buffer of the input video stream, and allocating memory for compressing a given reference frame based on a number of needed frames at a frame buffer. A quantization of the compression process may be adjusted to improve a picture quality of the input video stream.

Abstract: A technique for optimizing a prediction method of samples in blocks of an image is provided. The image includes a first block, a second block, a third block, and a fourth block, each of the blocks include 8×8 blocks and form one Macro block. The method includes performing a prediction of the second block, the third block and the fourth block by performing at least one of prediction methods. A prediction error per block (Pe) is computed for each prediction method that is performed to predict the second block, the third block, and the fourth block. The prediction error per block (Pe) equals an original block value minus a predicted block value. An optimal prediction method is chosen from each of the prediction methods performed that results in minimum ?|Pe| pixels per block (summation on pixels per block). The optimal prediction method and the Pe for each block are stored.

Abstract: Reducing a frame size in a memory for a receiver includes compressing a first analog television picture frame, storing the compressed frame in the memory, decompressing the compressed frame from the memory, obtaining a second analog television picture frame. The first frame includes a first set of pixels that further include at least one of Red/Green/Blue (RGB) samples and, the second frame includes a second set of pixels. Each of the first set of pixels of first frame being decompressed are compared with the corresponding second set of pixels of second frame to obtain an alpha (?) factor. A Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and a motion per pixel of the first set of pixels and the second set of pixels are compared. Each of a pixel is displayed based on the ? factor.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for equalizing analog TV signals includes an antenna that receives the signal data, wherein the signal data comprises a luminance carrier comprising a luminance channel and a chrominance carrier comprising a chrominance channel; an analog-to-digital converter coupled to receiving antenna that converts the received signal data to digital signal data; an instruction memory storing digital equalizer instructions; and a digital equalizer system, coupled to the memory and the analog-to-digital converter, wherein the digital equalizer system processes the digital equalizer instructions to estimate a noise variation of the luminance channel; equalize the luminance channel; and equalize the chrominance channel, wherein the equalization of the chrominance channel is separate and distinct from the equalization of the luminance channel.