e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[cksla]

New DSP Solution from Texas Instruments Brings High Quality Multimedia and Real-Time Video to Imaging Internet Appliances
DALLAS (April 3, 2001) -- In a move that accelerates advanced imaging in emerging consumer products, Texas Instruments Inc today unveiled the industry's highest performing digital signal processor-based solution for imaging Internet appliances. This low-power, fully programmable DSP solution enables real-time video in imaging Internet appliances such as streaming media devices, e-books, Webpads, photo printers, digital video camcorders and next-generation digital entertainment media centers. (See http://www.ti.com/sc/digitalcamera for more details.)

The TMS320DSC24 DSP is the highest performance programmable solution in the imaging Internet appliances industry today. The DSC24 packs the processing power needed to deliver encoding or decoding of real-time video at 320 x 240 (CIF) resolution. In addition, TI enables original equipment manufacturers to license multimedia software codecs that have been optimized for the DSC24 hardware architecture, as well as worldwide technical support. With TI's affordable solution, OEMs will be able to develop versatile imaging Internet appliances that extend today's networks to achieve ever greater multimedia communications. The DSC24 is the second member of TI's TMS320DSCx family of programmable DSP solutions that provides advanced imaging and video capabilities to emerging applications. Like TI's earlier TMS320DSC21 DSP, a proven solution in the digital still camera market, the DSC24 has a high level of system integration that keeps hardware design simple and cost-efficient. Feature enhancements from the earlier DSC21 include 50 percent lower battery consumption, 64K of DSP on-chip memory, additional power-down and standby modes, a smaller 0.15-micron CMOS process, and modifications to chip I/O, image buffering and other areas designed to enhance performance and simplify use of the chip in targeted applications. Ready-to-use software modules, including MPEG4, MPEG1, H.263, MP3, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), JPEG and motion JPEG, are all available to help OEMs design systems easily and deliver new multimedia applications to the market quickly.

"By integrating multimedia accelerators with a fully programmable DSP, TI's new imaging-specific chip for Internet appliances delivers a high performance solution needed for emerging next-generation applications," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts. "The DSC24's video and audio processor delivers the functions OEMs require for multi-functional devices, including image and video loading and compression, audio processing and communication with external devices."

The Growing Multimedia Market

Non-PC-based Internet appliances are one of the fastest growing areas of network applications. According to market analyst firm IDC, demand for information appliances will increase with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 33 percent, achieving a total market of nearly 90 million units worldwide by the year 2004. While no one knows yet the full range of these applications, imaging Internet appliances include e-books, electronic picture frames, personal digital assistants (PDAs), photo printers, Webpads and digital entertainment media centers that integrate the functionality of DVD/CD players and Web TV into a single system.

The DSC24 has the processing power and provides enough real-time high performance to handle the intense processing demands of streaming video and audio, as well as full-motion video applications. Devices using the DSC24 can also be upgraded by simple software downloads to keep pace with evolving standards and algorithm enhancements in the fast-changing networking and multimedia industries. In addition, the DSC24 platform can be utilized in concert with one of TI's wireless connectivity solutions such as Bluetooth or 802.11.

"The announcement of the DSC24 demonstrates TI's commitment to providing innovative DSP solutions for emerging multimedia applications," said Raj Talluri, business manager of the Imaging Business unit at TI. "The new DSC24 gives OEMs the performance and flexibility needed to create new types of multimedia systems to meet the demand for imaging Internet appliances." The DSC24 combines on a single device the ultra-low power TMS320C5000 DSP to perform real-time media processing and an ARM7TDMI RISC processor for system control functions. Programmable hardware multimedia accelerators perform concurrent processing that boosts application-specific imaging and video performance. As imaging and video appliances take on real-time wireless capabilities, the DSC24 architecture will provide a future roadmap to TI's DSP-based OMAP architecture, which leverages TI's high performance TMS320C55x DSP and TI-enhanced ARM9.

TI also offers a line of imaging and video front-end products to work seamlessly with DSC24. The TVP5031, TVP5040 and TFS8083 enable TI customers to convert analog video signals to digital data, which the DSC24 can then process. In addition, customers who wish to utilize the audio capability of the DSC24 can add the TLV320AIC23 to their system. This codec is designed specifically for portable electronic appliances such as MP3 players, cell phones and PDAs. TI provides high-performance, programmable DSP- and analog-based solutions for digital imaging and video streaming manufacturers. TI's broad range of imaging products provides the performance headroom and flexibility demanded in designs ranging from digital still cameras and portable imaging Internet appliances to high-resolution medical imaging and multi-channel video streaming applications.

Pricing and Availability

The DSC24 DSP is sampling now, with volume production expected in the third quarter of 2001. Evaluation modules (EVMs) are also currently available to help OEMs begin development on new systems. Price in quantities of 100 thousand units or more is expected to be less than $25.


Chipcenter's Paul Schreier says . . .

Niche processor focuses tightly on imaging

Many people believe that vertical markets represent some of the largest growth areas for DSPs in the coming years. Last year, TI aimed squarely at digital still cameras with the TMS320DSC21; this time it's optimized that same base design as an MPEG4 engine with the DSC24. As before, it's a combination of a C5000 class processor for DSP tasks along with an ARM7 for control purposes.

First examine what the developers left off of this device compared to its predecessor. It no longer has a preview engine as needed for a still camera, but it does continue to support an external LCD so users can examine moving images during filming or for later display. It drops the Burst mode compression engine that allows a still camera to make a fast series of discrete photo images, but the most recent version does have a Burst mode codec subsection. The number of general-purpose I/O lines drops from 32 to 21. Also, while the DSC21 provides a glueless interface for CompactFlash and SmartMedia cards, the DSC24 removes those internal interfaces and replaces them with a SecureDigital memory interface. "We believe that SD is becoming the most commonly adopted flash media in the consumer market," explains John Daniels, program manager for the Imaging Internet Appliances. "Palm has adopted it, and you can see lots of products from companies such as JVC/Panasonic. Even so, if designers want to employ those types that the previous chip handled automatically or any other types of memory, they can employ a dedicated memory interface for that purpose."

One of the big things you gain with this device is a doubling of SRAM from 32k to 64k bytes. Also, the memory on the DSP subsystem has also increased, allowing the DSP to implement multimedia codecs directly on the chip. All these memory enhancements account for the DSC24's doubling of MPEG4 processing efficiency. In addition, the chip supplies an enhanced power-down mode; while the DSC21 specs a maximum consumption of 365 mW, the DSC24 drops that level to 240 mW. Finally, this chip comes with support for DSP Linux from Ridge Run (Boise, ID) and VxWorks.

These features make the chip a good candidate for imaging products such as video camcorders. Another promising application is a "photo-show" system that displays digital images on a TV. Some of these new systems are portable, and a requirement for low power consumption is a major concern. The support for SD Card memory makes the chip a good engine for photo printers, which are starting to run independent of a PC. Here it would be convenient to simply take the memory card out of a camera and plug it directly into the printer.

{b]Finally, consider yet another class of products, portable units that can decode or stream MPEG4 video. What about a player that not only generates audio but also shows video clips on a small LCD?
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funny how edig now says working w/ OEM(s) re portable video platform?