MUMBAI: NXP Semiconductors NV, the supplier of car infotainment semiconductors, have announced that its digital radio co-processor the �SAF356X' can receive HD Radio, DRM and DAB/DAB+/T-DMB signals. NXP SAF356x will make possible for listeners to receive DRM radio signals while travelling anywhere across India.

The new digital car radio solution including DRM was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2012) in Las Vegas yesterday.

In 2010 the Indian Government gave green light and allocated funds for the radio digitisation of All India Radio (AIR), the public radio broadcaster. The largest MW DRM transmitter in the country (and one of the largest in the world with a power of 1 Megawatt) has been already installed in the west of the country with transmissions due on the air imminently. Since November 2011 All India Radio has doubled its daily DRM transmissions from Delhi to 16 hours a day.

NXP's new car entertainment solution offers manufacturers the flexibility to continue using their pre-existing HD radio architecture, as DRM capability is simply enabled by loading new firmware onto the processor. The application can also be extended to DRM+ in future.

DRM digital radio is an innovative standard currently being implemented in emerging markets such as India and Russia. DRM provides FM-comparable audio quality on the AM radio band. AM covers 98% of the population in India, while only 37% of listeners can currently receive the FM signal. As such, DRM enables digital radio to be rolled out across large countries, significantly improving audio quality at a low cost.

NXP Semiconductors general manager- Car Entertainment business Torsten Lehmann said, With this product we now have a single hardware platform covering all the main terrestrial digital radio standards, enabling us to offer our customers a truly global solution. This product supports NXP's Car Entertainment strategy of taking the lead in software-defined multi-standard digital radio solutions. DRM will enable a significant proportion of the population in countries such as India to receive high quality radio broadcast for free. As such, we're really excited to help bring this standard especially to the world's emerging markets....

DRM chairman Ruxandra Obreja said, NXP, a DRM member, are well known in the industry for their quality semiconductors and chip boards.  Getting a new DRM solution for India and the rest of the world will definitely advance the DRM roll-out in one of the premier radio markets of the world....