# Presentation: 327594

## Challenges ahead in low power set-top box design  Presentation at the ‘International Stakeholder Meeting’San Francisco - 29th June 2005 Ken Dale – Consultant Engineer, Pace Micro Technology

- Private & Confidential

## Background and introduction

**Pace Micro Technology profile**
**An international company supplying set-top box product in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand**
**Pace have been an Energy Star partner with several compliant products**
**Committed to supporting energy efficiency standards worldwide**
**Speaker profile**
**Principal job is to design the power architecture and power solutions for Pace products**
**Additional role is to promote energy efficiency in those products, particularly so they meet existing voluntary standards and any future legislation**
**Pace prefer voluntary standards set by agreement and I have been active in seeking to set realistic limits**
**So why should business be concerned with energy efficiency?**
**City investors and analysts expect leading companies to have a credible environmental policy**
**It seems better to co-operate proactively than be forced by unrealistic legislation**

## STB power consumption has been reduced, driven by voluntary targets

**‘****Active Standby’ is specified by service providers if they require that the set-top box continues to receive signal**
**Power saving between full operation and active standby is limited**
**Operational power has come down so that the standby limit can be met**
**Greatest power saving is possible in more complex product**

**Key is in the choice of power architecture, design of efficient power conversion**
**and effective power management**

## COST

** **

**COST**

**RELIABILITY**

**PERFORMANCE**

**Improved by lower average operating temperature**

**Higher energy efficiency allows**
**greater flexibility in product**
**size and design**

**Main cost is a ‘one-off’ in software design**
**Cost of any higher efficiency components partially offset by savings due to lower input power**

## Examples of what helps to give an energy efficient design

**Power management**
**Make use of power-down features provided in the main silicon**
**Where possible, use dynamic clock management to match processing speed to activity actually required**
**Disable circuit blocks when they are not required**
**In active-standby, for example, disable unused tuners, MPEG decoder, video/audio DACs, NTSC encoder, hard disk drive, modem, peripheral ports**
**Power conversion efficiency**
**Choose power architecture to give low distribution and regulation losses**
**Design with components which give best practical efficiency over all modes of operation**

## Newer digital TV technologies present energy efficiency challenges

**High Definition video**
**Faster data rate from signal source**
**Increased processing to decode**
**Multi-room, multi-decode**
**Higher overall power and larger number of circuit blocks to manage**
**Need to know which programme streams are required at any particular time / location and power manage the hardware in the best way**
**The STB is less likely to be put into the lowest power standby state from a remote location**
**It may not be clear when the standby mode can be used**
**However, multi-room may result in fewer STBs in the home**

## Who benefits from better energy efficiency?

**The Manufacturer can have a more reliable product**
**The Service Provider should have fewer product returns**
**The Shareholder has more confidence in the future of the business**
**The Customer has lower energy bills**
**The Government is helped with its energy policy**
**The Environment is better protected**

**Thank you and any questions?**