Low-Power Multimedia Engine Makes Portables Purr

Ever-more demanding audio, video, and image applications in portable systems—including H.264 encoding and decoding at VGA resolution with 30 frames/s—can look to the CEVA-X 1200 low-power core for answers. Developed by CEVA...

Dave Bursky

Oct. 28, 2004

Developed by CEVA Inc., the mobile media processor combines algorithmic accelerators that use pattern-recognition techniques, more than 30 dedicated multimedia DSP instructions, and a high-performance 3D DMA coprocessor designed for multimedia parallel processing (single-instruction/multiple-data operations). With the mix of dedicated resources, the mobile-media processor can handle H.264 decoding at VGA resolution (including audio processing) while consuming just 44 mW at 61 MHz.

For applications that don't require multimedia processing, CEVA also developed the CEVA-X 1100, a low-cost DSP platform targeted at wireless and general-purpose applications. Both systems are supported by software development libraries and a Mobile-Media development environment that includes an adaptive compiler technology and an "ecosystem" of over 30 third-party partners.

Contact the company for information about licensing terms.

CEVA Inc.www.ceva-dsp.com Barry Nolan, (408) 514-2900

About the Author

Dave Bursky

Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.