Toshiba Media Processor Mpact 2
Media Processors and Firewire...................................
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Multiuse Media Processors
For decoder applications, many chipmakers have developed programmable digital signal processors (DSP) called media processors. Philips Semiconductors, of the Netherlands, offers TriMedia; Toshiba Corp of Japan sells Mpact, which they licensed from Chromatic Research Inc of the US; and Matsushita has the Media Core processor.
A media processor allows a variety of market-specific chips to be designed quickly by implementing specific applications software into the chip (see NEA p 57, September 1995). For example, a media processor can execute an MPEG-decoder, two or three dimensional (2D/3D) graphic processing, voice recognition or other multimedia applications, depending on implemented software.
Toshiba recently announced its second generation Mpact chip, which integrates a DVD decoder, 3D graphic rendering engine and modem functions. The 125MHz clock chip offers 6 giga-operations-per-second (GOPS) performance. The chip and its evaluation board is being sampled now. The company plans to mass-produce it in 1998.
Toshiba is planning a third generation chip incorporating not only the Mpact architecture core circuit but also more peripherals to differentiate from competitors. The third generation will be available by the end of 1998.
Matsushita Electric's Media Core processor implements all DVD A/V decoding functions with a single chip. The 0.35æm CMOS chip integrates MPEG-2 A/V decoder, a descrambler, an on-screen display (OSD), video digital-analog converter (DAC) and other functions. The firm plans its sample-shipment for their second generation DVD players in March 1998.
The company plans to expand its product line for set-top box, digital TV with 525P progressive scan format, and car navigation systems, along with moving to advanced 0.25æm process.
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1394 for Multimedia Data Transfer
Transferring multimedia data has caused a performance bottleneck which IEEE1394 is attempting to improve. The IEEE1394 interface provides a standard for transferring multimedia data between PC and consumer electronics including CD-ROM drives, MiniDisc (MD) and DVD-video players, video printers and digital still cameras. US companies like Symbios Logic Inc (see p59) are joining with European firms like Philips Semiconductor to push product development for IEEE1394 chip.
Sony which marketed a DVC camcorder with IEEE1394 in 1995, has been aggressively developing link layer and physical layer products. Following the introduction of the CDX1948R, a link layer chip, the firm is developing the CXD3220R link and transaction layer chip. The new chip conforms to serial bus protocol-2 (SBP-2) for storage devices including hard disk drives (HDD), DVD-ROM and CD-ROM drives, and tape streamers.
Sony has completed development of a single chip integrating link and physical layers for next generation A/V equipment. The chip also integrates embedded gate array to connect with dedicated device chipsets. A/V chips vary isochronous realtime transferring protocols for individual applications; for example, a single DVC packet is 485 bytes, while MPEG data is 188 bytes.
Toshiba has also completed development of a physical layer circuit as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) core. Further, Matsushita demonstrated its physical and link layer chips at Japan Electronics Show 1997, but the company has no marketing plans yet. |
