Sony Ericsson adopts Silicon Laboratories' FM radio tuner for the W950 Walkman® Phone

The Silicon Laboratories Si4701 incorporates a digital processor for the RDS and the Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS), which includes all the required RDS/RBDS symbol decoding, block synchronization and error detection and correction functions. This feature enables Sony Ericsson to provide FM broadcast data such as song title, artist, and station name on the W950 Walkman® phone. The Si4701 is pin compatible to the non-RDS part, the Si4700.

“Consumers are demanding handsets with music functionality for both feature-rich phones and entry-level handsets,” said Tyson Tuttle, vice president of Silicon Laboratories. “The performance, integration and ease-of-use of our FM tuner products allow manufacturers like Sony Ericsson to quickly implement world-class FM stereo as a standard feature on any handset or portable media device.”

The Si4701 reduces cost while enabling superior sound quality and adjustability in critical FM receiver specifications. Using patented technology including a field-proven, low IF digital architecture and embedded processor technology, Silicon Laboratories’ FM tuners offer industry-leading performance in all FM receiver specifications and excel in real-world environments such as large cities where high immunity to blockers is critical for good reception. The devices provide software programmability for the seek, soft mute and stereo blend parameters, all of which are fundamental to superior performance in highly variable FM broadcast environments.