iCompression packs encoder subsystem on a chip
By Junko Yoshida EE Times (10/25/99, 3:12 p.m. EDT)
eet.com
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Digging tirelessly for treasure in the growing market for consumer video-recording devices and communication systems, iCompression Inc. here is rolling out a new family of single-chip MPEG-2 encoders with audio-, video- and system-encoding functions on board.
The ICs outperform competitors' encoding chips in providing the higher integration, more complete interface features and lower costs expected by consumer OEMs, claimed Vince Guaglianone, director of marketing and business development at iCompression.
Indeed, just three years since it opened, iCompression is a relative veteran in the encoding chip market. Focused on developing MPEG-2 encoding technologies for the mass consumer market, iCompression was the first to sample a similar, integrated, MPEG-2 audio and video encoder chip a year ago.
That first chip propelled iCompression into discussions with potential system OEMs and led to the development of some reference designs. But the prototype, then priced at $195 and made with a 0.35-micron process, was never produced in volume, said Guaglianone.
"The encoding business is in flux now," Guaglianone said. Fueled by growing interest in personal video recording systems designed by companies such as TiVo and Replay Networks, the demand for truly cost-effective consumer encoding chips has taken off more dramatically than anybody expected 18 months ago.
Many companies are eyeing the consumer encoding-device market. Besides TiVo, Replay and WebTV Networks—which are pioneering harddisk-drive-based set-top boxes—Asian consumer electronics manufacturers are integrating an AV-HDD in-to TV sets and are also developing recordable DVD systems. And PC OEMs and vendors of add-in cards are designing a TV tuner card with a pause function for real-time video broadcast.
The encoding chip has become a must-have engine for all systems designed to offer new features of intelligent time-shifting and viewing of television programs.
The new devices from iCompression reflect the business' dynamic change. One, iTVC10, is a streamlined version for USB applications that will sell for $29 in 10,000-unit batches. The other, iTVC12, is a versatile device designed to provide interoperability of broadcast and high-end consumer systems and transport-layer processing; it will cost $49 in 4,000-unit lots. Both chips, made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in a 0-25 micron process, are ready now in sample quantities and will be mass-produced in November. Besides shrinking the geometry to 0.25 micron, "we've improved the quality of our algorithms, made the new chips much more efficient and added more complete interfaces," said Guaglianone.
The two chips, based on the same basic architecture, offer combined audio video DSPs with optimized computational blocks for fixed functions. Where competing MPEG encoders only encode video , iCompression's solution is “a complete encoding subsystem-on-a-chip,” providing audio, video and system encoding, said Guaglianone.
Besides the chip's higher integration, one of the biggest advantages for system OEMs is that "they don't have to worry about getting the task of audio and video synchronization right," said Guaglianone. Further, when used for PC applications, iCompression's chip can relieve a host CPU from audio encoding. For consumer system applications, there will be no need to add a separate audio DSP, the company said.
The fundamental differences between the two chips are compression resolutions, size of necessary memory and support (or lack of support) of two-channel Dolby Digital audio encoding.
Low-cost applications
Primarily for PC add-in cards, computer peripherals based on USB, low-cost set-top boxes or TV applications, the iTVC10, featuring a glueless interface for USB, features MPEG-2 video and MPEG-1 Layer II audio compression. However, the chip does not offer Dolby Digital encoding capability. The economy device is designed to encode at 480 x 576 (PAL) and 480 x 480 (NTSC) resolution, but it does not encode at D1 resolution.
For example, on a USB-based TV tuner computer peripheral, the iTVC10 encodes an analog TV broadcast stream and sends off its encoded bit stream over USB to an HDD at up to 8 Mbits/second. Such an implementation requires a total of 6 Mbytes of SDRAM.
The iTVC12 is squarely targeted at high-end consumer and PC systems, particularly those that may require full D1 resolution. It offers MPEG-2 compression at 720 x 576 for PAL and 720 x 480 for NTSC, and two-channel MPEG-2 audio and Dolby Digital audio compression, both of which are required for maintaining compatibility with DVD and ATSC standards. Furthermore, the device is capable of generating both MPEG Program and MPEG Transport streams. The device's ability to process the MPEG-2 transport layer enables system designers to use the chip for broadcasting, communications and networking applications such as ATM and video-over-Internet Protocol networks. It requires 12 Mbytes of SDRAM.
It won't be easy to replace design wins that have been the result of long-term relationships and lots of firmware development already invested. Although iCompression has no specific design wins to brag about, Guaglianone said, "Once we are in, we will be much harder to replace" because all the firmware/software development will have gone inside iCompression's chips.
Besides personal video recording applications, iCompression is looking for design wins for its chips in the area of surveillance cameras, video-over-IP and videoconferencing. |
