San Jose, Calif. — Chrontel has released its CH7323 HDMI consumer electronic control (CEC) device, which adds CEC functionality to digital TVs, PCs, video recorders and other A/V products that support the HDMI standard. The CH7323, the second device in Chrontel's family of CEC ICs, incorporates several advanced features that reduce system complexity, cost and development time.

The CH7323 integrates multiple pre-programmed hardware interrupt lines, enabling standard control commands like Stop, Pause, Rewind and Eject to be directly accessed, without delay or extra software development. The device also offers advanced control options that handle additional CEC commands including audio control.

The CH7323 allows many A/V products that use MPEG decoders or DTV ICs that have internal HDMI transmitters to add CEC functionality without the cost of an additional, redundant HDMI-CEC transmitter and without a CPU for CEC message processing, said Chrontel. The CH7323 can also be coupled with standalone HDMI transmitters that do not integrate CEC capability.

The CH7323 can act as either a master or slave, allowing its host A/V product to be controlled by its own remote control or the remote of another A/V product that is connected via HDMI. In addition to its standard, pre-programmed commands, the CH7323 can also be customized to support vendor-specific commands.

Pricing: Packaged in a 24-pin SSOP, the CH7323 is priced at $1.50 in quantities of 10,000.
Availability: Samples are available now, and production volumes will be available in October 2008.
Product information: CH7323 and HDMI CEC products

Chrontel, www.chrontel.com