MediaMatic's DVD chip........................................
techweb.com
February 08, 1999, Issue: 1047
Section: Semiconductors
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Mediamatics integrates DVD on a single chip
Junko Yoshida
Fremont, Calif. - True to its commitment to system-on-a-chip technology, National Semiconductor Corp. subsidiary Mediamatics has unveiled a single-chip DVD solution integrated with all the back-end functions of a DVD player, except for the audio D/A converter and memory.
The Pantera-DVD chip combines a transport demux; MPEG-2 video/Dolby Digital decoder; CSS descrambling; NTSC/PAL encoding; video D/A converters; and Mediamatics' proprietary 32-bit RISC CPU. Unlike most DVD chip sets, the Pantera-DVD eliminates the need for an external host CPU or microcontroller, as well as a separate video encoder and video D/As.
The chip's claim to fame includes high-level integration and the quality it brings to the market. "We are bringing the audio/video quality of an $800 high-end DVD player into this single-chip solution," said Prem Nath, president and chief executive officer of Mediamatics. "This should allow OEMs to build a high-quality $300 DVD player."
Mediamatics said its solution improves video-display quality, with high-quality bits maintained from the digital to the analog domain. Audio and video are synchronized without the usual compromises, such as repeating or skipped frames, said Pier Del Frate, vice president of marketing. The on-chip integration of a high-quality 10-bit video D/A as well as an NTSC/PAL encoder has helped Mediamatics achieve some of those advances, he added.
At the heart of the DVD solution lies Mediamatics' proprietary 32-bit RISC CPU. The embedded processor running at 66 MHz performs all the housekeeping tasks inside the chip, as well as parsing and controlling audio and video streams. No external CPU is required.
Although proprietary, the good news about this homegrown CPU is that it's compatible with the MIPS R3000 instruction set. "We can take advantage of all the third-party tool sets," said Nath.
The CPU serves as a platform for associated DVD applications, such as navigation, on-screen display and front-panel control. According to Nath, it has enough processing power to run other applications, such as Internet browsing. To show off the expandability of Pantera-based systems, the company demonstrated a DVD player integrated with the Net-crawling feature at the Consumer Electronics Show last month, using a browser developed by Planetweb (Mountain View, Calif.).
Pantera is manufactured using a 0.35-micron process. By the end of this year, Mediamatics plans to move to 0.25 micron. "That would allow us to produce an integrated RISC CPU that can run at 81 MHz," said Del Frate. The plan is to leverage the extra processing clout to run DVD front-end servo-controller functions, with the help of architectural enhancements, he said.
Squarely targeting the Asian market, including China, Mediamatics is offering a complete manufacturing kit that includes all the hardware, software, manufacturing documentation, casing, board schematics and Gerber files needed to produce a consumer DVD player.
The software components are particularly important, said Nath, for consumer companies that want to customize their own user interface quickly, or for those that can't muster enough software engineers to write all the necessary DVD software, including real-time OS, on-screen display and navigation.
The Pantera-DVD chip, available now, is $30 in volume. Based on Mediamatics' manufacturing kit, OEMs can build a DVD player at a bill of materials of $187, according to the company. Mediamatics says it has already signed up three OEMs in China that have started manufacturing, and one in Japan.
Copyright ® 1999 CMP Media Inc.
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