Xceive XC3028/XC2028

This article discusses a family of silicon ICs, produced by Xceive, that combine RF tuner and analog IF demodulator functions within one chip. In addition, this page addresses the drivers that support these chips, as well as their firmware requirements.

IC Family Members

XC3028

The XC3028 has robust support for both analog and digital signals; it supports the analog TV broadcast standards (NTSC, PAL, & SECAM), CVBS, SIF and most digital TV standards (ATSC, DVB-C, DVB-T, DMB-T, & ISDB-T).

Note: While the XC3028 is capable of reception of signals using 64-QAM, it is incapable of handling the more complex 256-QAM flavour.

The XC3028 IC is found in a large number of devices.

XC3018

seen here.

The XC3018 is a lesser version of the XC3028; it supports only the analog TV broadcast standards (NTSC, PAL, & SECAM) and just the DVB-T digital TV standard, whereas the XC3028 has more robust support for both analog and digital signals.

List of devices using this chip:

• AVerMedia CardBus Hybrid TV+FM E506R
• AVerMedia AVerTV Hybrid+FM Volar

XC2028

analog only variant

Drivers

Development -- There are two drivers versions. The oldest out-of-tree driver, from mrec. Newer kernels (2.6.25+) will have tuner-xc2028 for xc2028/3028 based boards.

Feature Support

• in-kernel xc3028 driver - analog/DVB-T/ATSC work fine; radio support is untested
• mrec's - analog and digital are both supported

Firmware Information

The information in this section is directed only towards support for the in-kernel driver. For 3rd party driver requirements and/or information, please consult those sources directly.

How to Obtain the Firmware

Follow the instructions outlined on lines 6-14 of the extract_xc3028.pl script. Specifically:

# In order to use, you need to:
#       1) Download the windows driver with something like:
#               wget http://www.steventoth.net/linux/xc5000/HVR-12x0-14x0-17x0_1_25_25271_WHQL.zip
#       2) Extract the file hcw85bda.sys from the zip into the current dir:
#               unzip -j HVR-12x0-14x0-17x0_1_25_25271_WHQL.zip Driver85/hcw85bda.sys
#       3) run the script:
#               linux/Documentation/video4linux/extract_xc3028.pl
#       4) copy the generated file:
#               cp xc3028-v27.fw /lib/firmware

The above instructions allow the extraction of Xceive v.2.7 firmwares. This is know to work with a large number of boards from different manufacturers.

tuner_callback requirement

In order for the proper firmware to load, the bridge chip must be coded with a tuner_callback.

tuner_callback is dependent at the bridge code, and the needed gpio's to reset xc2028/3038.

See the particular bridge chip articles/code for further information.

External Links

• XC3028 product page
• XC2028 product page
• mrec's mcentral wiki - offers alternative, out of kernel, drivers for some xc3028 based devices:
  • mrec's page on the xc3028 ... note: that the information seems heavily tied to devices which utilise a EMPIA em2880 bridge ... hence you may also want to read his em2880 page for related info