Toshiba was sneaky and thought by mounting this chip on the underside of the tuner PCB they'd be able to avoid people noticing it. But in reality, this chip is irrelevant unless you're trying to physically attack DTCP. All it does is connect to the "undocumented" copy-protection port on the 1394 link layer controller, and does the encryption/decryption/authentication portion of DTCP. But guess what, once this decryption is done, the signal goes out IN THE CLEAR (lol) over the (documented) output port of 1394 controller. So much for clever design, Toshiba!
And now for a PR spin...
Toshiba has developed an LSI chip set "Conquest" for digital HDTV (High
Definition TeleVision receivers). The LSI chip set conforms to specifications
of the ARIB of Japan, and can be used not only for BS receivers, with data
broadcasting service in Japan, but also for satellite broadcasting/CATV/and
terrestrial broadcasting receivers in US (You wish, nobody wants your
overpriced chipsets, wake the fuck up. Minimum cost of ISDB receiver is ~$300
USD, ATSC receivers can be had for 1/4 that price). The LSI chip set
consists of an 8-PSK demodulator (TC90A54F), an MPEG audio/video decoder
(TC90A55TB), a video/graphic processor (TC90A56TB), and an IEEE1394 copy
protection processor (TC81501F). The LSIs, except TC81501F, utilize 0.25nm
process technology and 2.5 V internal operating voltage. Using these
technologies, power consumption has been reduced to 0.64 W for TC90A54F, 2.1 W
for TC90A55TB, and 2.3 W for TC90A56TB. TC81501F prevents internal
confidential data from external access by utilizing built-in EEPROM
(Electrically Erasable and Programmable ROM) process. A later revision of
this chipset, called "Conquest II", packed the video decoder and graphics
processor into a single LSI, so that more or less one-chip STB solution is
available.
