Hisense recently unveiled the Hiview digital-video media-processing chip, which successfully passed authoritative appraisal by the MII (Ministry of Information Industry). Hisense built the chip on a 0.18-micron CMOS process. It integrates almost 2 million logic gates and more than 7 million interior transistors. Hisense has been developing the chip over the last four years at its ASIC-design center. The company's Shanghai-based R&D team made the tape-out chip, which involved an investment of about 30 million yuan (about $37 million). Designers can use the product in various kinds of flat TVs, CRTs, and rear-projection TVs.

Hisense currently sells about 7 million TV sets per year. The company plans to use Hiview for digital high-definition TVs, with an expected production capacity of 1 million pieces this year. According to industry insiders, Hiview is not a pioneer product in China, but it may become one of the first video-processing chips to be commercialized.

Hisense, www.hisense.com.