Controller Chip Raises The Standard

With the MQ2100 Multimedia Platform Controller chip, mobile-handset manufacturers can rapidly integrate embedded cameras and color graphics into existing and new product designs. In addition, OEMs can easily incorporate high-end multimedia capabilities into products without having to redesign and re-qualify the entire handset. The result is a cost savings that trickles down to consumers of next-generation embedded-camera and video handsets.

The MQ2100 chip features a powerful 64-b hardware-acceleration engine. This engine has double buffering for 176 × 220 resolution for 2D graphics. It effectively increases LCD screen resolution to up to 320 × 240 pixels. The engine also increases embedded memory size for higher screen resolutions, more vivid colors, and JPEG compression.

In addition to providing the video and display capabilities demanded by handset applications, the MQ2100 chip can operate within low-power parameters. Because it was fabricated using advanced low-leakage process technology, it is inherently power efficient. DynamicQ Power Management gates off the clocks of inactive modules. It also gates off the SRAM clock when no accesses are made. Clocks to inactive pipeline stages in active modules are gated off as well. As a result, the MQ2100 consumes less than 5 mW of power during normal operation.

To ease the system design and integration challenges for OEMs, the MQ2100 includes the MQ-OSIK. It facilitates the integration of the hardware-acceleration function into OEM operating systems. The MQ-OSIK contains four sets of well-defined functions, including 2D graphics acceleration, initialization, JPEG, and video functions. It allows OEMs to initialize hardware. In addition, they can easily integrate the MQ2100 with various baseband CPUs and operating systems that are used in handsets.

The MQ2100's graphics controller and flexible LCD interface design support a variety of LCD-panel technologies and technology standards. For camera-module support, the MQ2100's CCIR656-compliant Video Input Port takes images directly from CCD/CMOS VGA or CIF camera modules for display and capture. In addition to flexible LCD and camera interfaces, the host interface in the MQ2100 can support popular baseband-CPU interface types. The built-in interface flexibility gives OEMs sourcing options. They also gain platform scalability to address different market needs.

The MQ2100 is now sampling. General production is also underway.