From digital televisions to portable electronics, the H.264/AVC next-generation video compression standard is becoming mainstream. And major processor makers--mainly Japan-based firms--are facilitating that trend with chips that not only provide higher integration at lower cost and power, but aim to resolve encoding complexities and coding control challenges facing design engineers.

With the ability to achieve more than twice the compression ratio of the existing MPEG-2 standard, H.264/AVC is indeed a major advance in bringing better-quality video to electronics. The processor market is preparing to supply full-production SoCs that support the H.264/AVC standard. Though they may offer different functions and features, they all promise to deliver one thing: crisper video.

Japan-based Fujitsu, NEC Electronics, Renesas Technology and Sigma Designs are going strong in this sector, as are major U.S. chip companies, such as Broadcom, that are also looking to bring advanced functionality and differentiated features to digital TV designs.

In an effort to help OEMs quickly develop full-HD digital televisions with H.264/AVC compatibility at low cost, NEC has developed the EMMA3TL image processing SoC with a built-in analog A/V switch (for switching analog input signals when multiple devices are connected), high-speed video A/D converter, audio A/D converter, analog audio stereo decoder, HDMI receiver, audio D/A converter, USB host controller and an Ethernet controller.

The chip is the successor to NEC's EMMA2TH/H's image-processing circuit. In addition to integrating many of its predecessor's external I/O functions into its latest device, NEC also improved the image-processing circuit, enabling it to display high-resolution video as well as PC content. The color representation was upgraded from the conventional YUV 4:2:2 format to the YUV 4:4:4 format, doubling the accuracy of its color space, and enabling crisp image quality without smudging or blurring.

The performance of the deinterlacer and noise-reduction circuit was also improved. For analog video input, the technology NEC developed in the existing µPD64017 3D Y/C separation chip was enhanced, and the EMMA3TL now boasts an even higher-quality analog video decoder, supporting PAL, SECAM and NTSC.

The EMMA3TL uses a high-performance dual-core MIPS CPU capable of 1,000 DMIPS (Dhrystone MIPS), making it possible to implement networks and other apps with heavy processing loads.

Also focused on bringing H.264/AVC capability to HD IPTVs, as well as IPTV set-top boxes (STBs), IP-cable STBs, and Blu-ray players, is Sigma Designs, which just started to sample a high-performance processor with increased CPU performance and expanded interface capability. The SMP8644 is expected to be in production by this December.

The SMP8644 offers a full complement of advanced decoder engines with HD video decoding, including H.264 (MPEG-4 part 10), Windows Media Video 9, VC-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (part 2) and the AVS standard. High-performance graphics acceleration, multistandard audio decoding with three on-chip DSP engines, advanced display processing capabilities and HDMI 1.3 output round out its multimedia core.

Powerful content security is ensured through a dedicated secure processor, on-chip flash memory and a range of digital rights management engines for high-speed payload decryption. The SMP8644 also features a full complement of system peripherals, including a dual Ethernet controller, dual USB 2.0 controller, NAND and NOR flash controllers, IR controller and dual SATA controller.

Beyond its on-chip media processing core, the SMP8644 supports a number of optional capabilities. Using a direct interface, the addition of a VXP Image Processor such as the VXP9452 enables studio-quality video output. VXP technology uses the most advanced image-processing algorithms available--such as professional-grade deinterlacing, scaling, and a host of noise-reduction and image-enhancement algorithms--to deliver crisp, natural-looking, artifact-free images on displays of virtually any size. Adding support for IEEE1394 only requires the direct connection of a 1394 transceiver chip to the transport stream interface for a complete solution.

To provide TV manufacturers with the most advanced technology for the growing U.S. digital TV market, Broadcom is offering the BCM3548 and BCM3549 SoCs. These units leverage the advanced design of the Broadcom BCM3556 DTV solution that includes support for digital video broadcast-based platforms to address European and Asian markets.

These highly integrated single-chip SoCs from Broadcom allow TV manufacturers to offer a variety of features and interactivity. All three provide advanced multiformat decoding in support of high definition AVC, H.264, VC-1, AVS and MPEG-2 streams. By supporting H.264, the BCM3548 and BCM3549 enable users to view multimedia and HD content from networked devices, with improved picture quality.

The BCM3548 and BCM3549 feature a 3D graphics core that provides a GUI for flipping, rotating, moving or manipulating images, and enables OEMs to create specialized user interfaces that differentiatesthe TV from conventional flat, two dimensional user interfaces. The two SoCs include home network connectivity via integrated Ethernet media access controller and physical layer capabilities that enable users to connect with multiple home networking devices such as media servers, PCs, MP3 devices and portable media players, as well as Internet-based multimedia content. As a result, users can share and stream music, photos, movies and other media content to and from connected devices and TVs.

Renesas announced the SH-MobileUL2, a new member of its SH-Mobile series of application processors for mobile apps. According to the company, the SH7366 offers approximately 30 percent power-savings for video playback applications compared with its previous products. It achieves 30 frames-per-second (fps) encoding and decoding performance with a D1-size display (720 x 480 pixels). Also, to help simplify designs and reduce system cost, the processor has more built-in peripheral functions, including a USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed) interface and an on-chip D/A converter for TV output. A small (8-mm to 10-mm), 284-pin ball grid array package includes a microprocessor and system memory, facilitating the design of smaller, more convenient phones.

Power savers

Portable devices are also on Fujitsu's mind. The company in November expanded its line of H.264 codecs with two devices that encode and decode full HD video in H.264 format. The first of the two to be launched, the ultra-low-power MB86H55, features power consumption of only 500 mW during full HD encoding, including the built-in memory. The upcoming MB86H56 will offer processing of full HD video at 60 fps (progressive), or 60p, to improve picture quality.

The two new products offer a small package size of 15 mm x 15 mm, making them well-suited to record, play and transmit superior picture-quality HD video on portable devices, such as digital camcorders, as well as on home networked appliances, commercial broadcast equipment and security cameras.