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California headquartered NEC Electronics which claims to
offer a broad range of system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for
digital AV products, has announced a new system-on-a-chip
(SoC) audio/video decoder solution for use in set-top box
and digital television applications.
The SoC (NEC part number uPD61120) features dual 32-bit
MIPS processors to maximise performance and offers decoding
support for popular audio formats including Dolby Digital
and MP3. The audio/video decoder SoC is also software upgradeable,
allowing original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to easily
update application support in the field via the SoC's integrated
soft modem, says a company release.
Key to the performance capabilities of NEC's new SoC are
its two integrated MIPS processor cores. In set-top boxes
based on single processor designs, the processor must support
both the operating system and decoding of audio and video
streams simultaneously, which can limit performance. NEC's
uPD61120 SoC devotes one processor to supporting the operating
system and the other to supporting real-time audio and video
decoding. This arrangement significantly improves processing
performance, enhances graphics quality and provides the
ability to support more audio standards compared to competing
solutions the release says.
A high level of integration is achieved by implementing
the SoC in NEC's advanced 0.13-micron fabrication process.
The uPD61120 dual-processor audio/video decoder SoC solution
is capable of delivering the performance required for next-generation
advanced digital media applications. NEC claims to have
led the industry in 1998 by delivering the first single-chip
solution that fully integrated all core elements needed
for backend processing in a set-top box. by delivering a
powerful single-chip solution at a price point that enables
its mass deployment in low-cost set-top boxes and digital
TVs.
Key Features of the uPD61120 SoC
-- Dual MIPS32 4Kc CPUs
-- 225 MIPS performance at 187 megahertz (MHz) frequency
-- 3.3-volt (V) interface and 1.5V core operation
-- Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) for DDR SDRAM
-- Programmable transport stream de-multiplexer
-- Digital video broadcasting (DVB) and DirecTV(R) compliance
-- Serial or parallel stream interface
-- High-speed data output port for IEEE-1394 interface
-- Audio MPEG1/MPEG2 compliance
-- NTSC, PAL and SECAM compliance
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