Controllers Take Wireless Internet Appliance Performance To New Heights

With the launch of the MQ-11xx family of controllers, both wired and wireless Internet appliance platforms are said to have the means to scale new heights in performance. The first two members of the new platform controller family include: the MQ-1100, an IC that combines on-chip a 64-bit 2D graphics engine, LCD display interface, and USB device controller; and the MQ-1132, which melds together the MQ-1100's functionality with USB host and Serial Peripheral Interface controllers and an I²S stereo audio interface.
Both controllers enable Web browsing and other multimedia applications to run at resolutions up to 320x320 with 65,536 colors on passive and active LCDs. The ICs' 64-bit 2D graphics acceleration engine, with screen-to-screen BitBLT, is said to deliver graphics performance normally associated with desktop computers. The controllers feature DynamicQ power management, power-efficient graphics accelerators, and wide 64-bit internal buses to low-power embedded memory (256 KB of SRAM). The power-saving features combine to reduce battery consumption in both operational and power-down modes.
The controllers plus software are targeted at an array of handheld and information appliances for different market segments. The MQ-11xx controller supports leading mobile CPU architectures and provides interfaces to RISC processors such as Hitachi's SH-7750/7709, Intel's SA-1110, Motorola's Dragonball series, NEC's VR-41xx family, and Toshiba's TX-39xx processors. Among the operating systems supported are Palm O/S, Linux, Windows CE and Symbian's EPOC32. MQ-1100 comes in a 100-pin TQFP costing $10.95 each/10K/month, while the 132-pin BGA MQ-1132 is priced at $12.05.