[Via Satellite 01-07-2015] Semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics has started shipping its Ultra-HDp60 quad-core System-on-a-Chip (SoC) Integrated Circuits (ICs) (STiH314/318 and STiH414/418) to customers. Designed for use in Set-Top Boxes (STBs) the SoCs can decode Ultra-HD video using High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) at 60 frames per second with 10-bit color depth streams from all main video-encoder providers and displayed on the latest-generation HDMi2.0 at 6 Gbps. The STB chips can support live feeds alongside features such as Fast Channel Change (FCC) and transcoding, and contain a prototype High Dynamic Range (HDR) feature that delivers “darker darks” and “brighter whites” to further improve the quality of 4K content.

The quad-core SoCs are software and pin compatible with other members of the Cannes (STiH31x) and Monaco (STiH41x) families. According to STMicroelectronics, the several major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have already selected the chips for next-generation Ultra-HD products.