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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Rieman who wrote (24379)	10/24/1997 5:21:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Cheaper digital video cameras in our future........... This would mate nicely with CUBE's DVx. Remember when people used to have analog video cameras? Yeah, they also used to play music on plastic records with mechanical pickups -- you had to flip them over to hear the other side! techweb.cmp.com Crystal move raises the ante for CCD chip sets By Stephan Ohr AUSTIN, Texas -- Cirrus Logic's Crystal Semiconductor Products Division is shipping what it says is among the most complete charge-coupled device (CCD) chip sets available for digital video cameras. The chip set includes an analog signal-processing element (the CS7615) and a digital signal-processing element (the CS7665). Most of Cirrus' analog competitors are offering only analog CCD signal conditioning circuits, and many of those lack essential elements. The heart of Crystal's analog circuit is a 10-bit A/D converter that grabs the output of a separate CCD and converts it to a digital format. Noise reducer The analog part of the device also includes an automatic gain control (AGC) loop for exposure control, a black level clamp and a correlated double sampler for noise reduction. An additional feature of the chip set is a built-in timing synch generator. Douglas Holberg, director of video and imaging products for the Crystal division, said many of its competitors don't offer that feature. The digital circuit includes a separator for mosaic color (cyan, magenta, yellow and green), gamma correction, saturation control and anti-aliasing. The chip set formats an image in the ITU-601 digital video standard (720 x4 80 pixels) but it also supports the small CIF (358 x 288) and mega-pixel (1,000 x 1,000) formats. A CCD sensor and a vertical drive circuit are the only other components required to make a digital camera. According to Crystal, video-camera and capture-card maker Winnov (Sunnyvale, Calif.) has agreed to use the chip set in portable and desktop cameras for videoconferencing applications. The single chips offered by such Crystal competitors as Exar and Analog Devices include an A/D converter, AGC loop and correlated double sampler but no DSP color corrector. The CCD imager recently demonstrated by Motorola and Kodak's Microelectronics Group could be the first one to include the CCD light-sensing elements on the same chip with analog signal-conditioning elements. It still remains to be seen, however, whether the product can be manufactured at sufficiently low cost. Crystal's Holberg said the OEM price of PC digital cameras--the video cameras used in security, conferencing and PC video applications--is likely to be less than $50. Though initially in the $35 range, Holberg said he expects to see Crystal's large-volume pricing dropping to around $15 as the product progresses along the learning curve. The CS7615 comes in a 44-lead thin quad flat pack; the CS7665 is packaged in a 64-lead TQFP. Samples are available now, and a design kit for the devices will be available in November.