June 12, 2009 - An eventful day ...

June 12th,2009 has been an eventful day for me for various reasons.The reasons for celebrating this day are more than one,in my case and this blog will share them with you.

1) DTV Transition:
The first reason is that a wholesome "Transition to Digital TV" is complete in the US on this historic day and from this date on, we bid a farewell to the Analog broadcast and the TV Stations will only broadcast digital signals.The DTV is going to revolutionize the TV watching experience round the globe and get ready to enjoy television with better picture and sound quality.

The switch from analog to digital broadcast television is referred to as the digital TV (DTV) transition. In 1996, the U.S. Congress authorized the distribution of an additional broadcast channel to each broadcast TV station so that they could start a digital broadcast channel while simultaneously continuing their analog broadcast channel. Later, Congress set June 12, 2009 as the final date that full power television stations can broadcast analog signals. As of June 13, 2009, full power television stations will only broadcast digital, over-the-air signals.

As of now, the principal advantages of DTV that are discussed are superior audio and video quality compared to the analog broadcast and the "Multicasting".Google "multicasting" for details :)

This website http://www.dtv.gov/ provides the entire details about this DTV Transition and go through it if interested.

Its in the US and what has it got to do with India, might be the next question.The point is,the technology has arrived and is on the way and it won't take much time before India embraces the DTV broadcast.The count down begins...

And on my part, I am already a part of this revolution as I have worked on the Memory Controller that goes into the DTV Chip,manufactured by Broadcom (During my final year project with Broadcom) and this makes it more special. :)

2) BCM 7420 Tapeout
I am not a part of Broadcom anymore but BCM 7420 happens to be the first chip(designed by Broadcom) that I worked on in my professional career.Its a Set-Top box chip and during my one year tenure at Broadcom,I witnessed its design and verification from the head (neck atleast) till toes and the chip tapes-out on this day 12th June,2009.Tape-out is an event that marks the departure of the design from the Software format(Netlist) to the hardware format(to the foundry).

Since this guy(BCM 7420) happens to be the first chip I have kept my hands on, he is so special for me.

3) BITS Pilani recognises me as an Engineer !!!
Last but not least,this day has gotta be so special personally.I graduate out from my college with a M.Sc and a B.E degree.It's the final day of my PS-II and BITS-Pilani proudly launches another batch of engineers (of around 1000 people) to the country and I am one among them.

Its a great day that shouldn't be forgotten...