LONDON — Fabless startup RedMere Technology Ltd. (Dublin, Ireland) has said it plans to demonstrate the RM1689 IC for adaptive equalization and de-skew of high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) signals at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

RedMere, founded in 2004, is already supplying high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) receiver chips to customers. It has signed a supply agreement with Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. (South Portland, Maine) to provide known good die (KGD) for the HDTV and consumer multimedia markets and is in discussion with connector manufacturers for the inclusion of its silicon within cables.

The RM1689 is an low power device that can allow the use of low-cost HDMI cabling and can draw power for its operation from the HDMI signals themselves. The RM1689 is embedded within the HDMI connector and enables the 3.4-Gbits per second operation required to pass the rigorous v1.3 testing for CAT2 cables compliance.

The use of thin flexible HDMI cabling is attractive to manufacturers of consumer devices such as gaming consoles, digital cameras and portable AV products, RedMere said. RedMere's RM1689 enables cable manufacturers to reduce costs on a number of fronts including a reduction in the copper content of up to 80 percent and the use of lower cost dielectric materials within the cable structure. The embedded de-skew technology enables yield and throughput improvements during the cable manufacturing process. The de-skew capability allows cable assembly customers to use lower-cost twisted pair bulk cable rather than the parallel pair construction used in today's high performance cables.

Related articles:

Enterprising Irish try different business models for size

FireWire turns up heat with 3.2 Gbit/s specification

Irish fabless firm to provide known good die to Fairchild