News & Analysis
TI adds HD accelerators to DaVinci
Junko Yoshida
3/1/2011 8:01 AM EST
NEW YORK – Hoping for design wins in high-definition video products such as surveillance servers, multi-screen video conferencing and media players/servers for digital signage, Texas Instruments is unveiling Tuesday (March 1) two new DaVinci media processors featuring what the company proclaims the industry’s highest performing video engine.
The new DaVinci media processors, designated as TMS320DM8168 (designed for high performance) and TMS320DM8148 (designed for low power), come with high-performance video accelerators. The new architecture completely frees TI’s 674x-series DSP core and ARM Cortex-A8 CPU core – both integrated in each DaVinci media processor – from such chores as running video processing. Instead, the processing powers of the DSP and ARM cores run a variety of system-level differentiations, according to Kim Devlin-Allen, TI’s director of marketing responsible for DaVinci digital media processors.
The DM8168 provides up to three simultaneous1080p at 60 frames per second video streams, 12 simultaneous 750p 30 frames per second video streams or a combination of lower resolution streams. TI’s Devlin-Allen described its performance as “three times the video streaming capability, compared to our competitors’ solutions.” Also integrated on the chip are high-bandwidth peripherals including SATA 2.0, two Ethernet MACs, HDMI, DDR2/DDR3 and PCIexpress. The highly integrated DM8168 is designed to compress raw video, store it to HDD or send it to the Internet, for various applications that range from DVR for security to video conferencing and video broadcasting.
Meanwhile, the lower-power DM8148 DaVinci digital media processor offers a single 1080p60 fps video stream, three simultaneous 720p30 fps video streams or multiple lower resolution streams “at three watts,” TI’s Devlin-Allen, added.
The high-level integration achieved in both processors reduced bill-of-material costs “by as much as 50 percent,” according to TI.
Freeing the DSP and ARM cores from video processing
Considering that TI has always stressed the importance of its DSP’s video processing capabilities in DaVinci media processors, the move to shift its core task to video accelerators was “surprising,” noted Michael Palma, research manager at IDC’s consumer device semiconductors & electronics manufacturing services. But he said, “I think TI [engineers] find the hardware acceleration helps them achieve the video processing goals they have set, better than a DSP can deliver on. This also frees up the processor core and the DSP to handle other tasks such as managing the multiple streams; to provide the analytics portion of the solution; and to handle other applications.” He added, “Especially for the DM8168, they are moving up the value chain and this is where they are using the extra processing horsepower.”
And that – “doing more than video capture processing” – may be precisely the strength of the new DaVinci processors.
The new DaVinci media processors, designated as TMS320DM8168 (designed for high performance) and TMS320DM8148 (designed for low power), come with high-performance video accelerators. The new architecture completely frees TI’s 674x-series DSP core and ARM Cortex-A8 CPU core – both integrated in each DaVinci media processor – from such chores as running video processing. Instead, the processing powers of the DSP and ARM cores run a variety of system-level differentiations, according to Kim Devlin-Allen, TI’s director of marketing responsible for DaVinci digital media processors.
The DM8168 provides up to three simultaneous1080p at 60 frames per second video streams, 12 simultaneous 750p 30 frames per second video streams or a combination of lower resolution streams. TI’s Devlin-Allen described its performance as “three times the video streaming capability, compared to our competitors’ solutions.” Also integrated on the chip are high-bandwidth peripherals including SATA 2.0, two Ethernet MACs, HDMI, DDR2/DDR3 and PCIexpress. The highly integrated DM8168 is designed to compress raw video, store it to HDD or send it to the Internet, for various applications that range from DVR for security to video conferencing and video broadcasting.
Meanwhile, the lower-power DM8148 DaVinci digital media processor offers a single 1080p60 fps video stream, three simultaneous 720p30 fps video streams or multiple lower resolution streams “at three watts,” TI’s Devlin-Allen, added.
The high-level integration achieved in both processors reduced bill-of-material costs “by as much as 50 percent,” according to TI.
Freeing the DSP and ARM cores from video processing
Considering that TI has always stressed the importance of its DSP’s video processing capabilities in DaVinci media processors, the move to shift its core task to video accelerators was “surprising,” noted Michael Palma, research manager at IDC’s consumer device semiconductors & electronics manufacturing services. But he said, “I think TI [engineers] find the hardware acceleration helps them achieve the video processing goals they have set, better than a DSP can deliver on. This also frees up the processor core and the DSP to handle other tasks such as managing the multiple streams; to provide the analytics portion of the solution; and to handle other applications.” He added, “Especially for the DM8168, they are moving up the value chain and this is where they are using the extra processing horsepower.”
And that – “doing more than video capture processing” – may be precisely the strength of the new DaVinci processors.
|
|
|
|
|
Navigate to related information
selinz
3/1/2011 10:45 AM EST
Sounds impressive but it would be interesting to have a comparison with other video processing DSPs.
Sign in to Reply
junko.yoshida
3/1/2011 3:55 PM EST
Your points are well taken, selinz. I have not seen other media processors capable of three HD video streams (1080p@60), though. If anyone else out there has any info, let us know!
But again, the point of this TI's announcement is that its new DaVinci media processor is NOT using its DSP core for video processing at all. Instead, they have integrated three units of well-crafted HD video accelerators inside DaVinci.
Sign in to Reply
hm
3/1/2011 6:00 PM EST
I have a basic question. If input to this media processor is one CCD/CMOS image sensor, why does it need three outputs at 1080P60fps? Also, one output is on HDMI, wherer to do you send other outputs? Can HDMI take more then one outputs?
I wish it had USB 3.0 support for 1080P60fps output.
Will DB8148 will also have HDMI output built into this? I prefer Ambrella ASIC implementation to this TI solution.
Sign in to Reply
jgolston
3/2/2011 12:05 PM EST
Great questions. ASIC basic solutions are very different from this TI solution. The support for many channels of video capture and multiple displays are a good example of the additional capabilities.
On the capture side, both DM8148 and DM8168 include multiple BT1120/BT656 digital video capture ports. These can support up to 16 channels of concurrent SD capture working in conjunction with TI's TVP5158 multichannel video decoder or multiple channels of 1080p60 capture. This is used in security Digital Video Recorders to enable multi-channel encoding from existing analog CCTV camera infrastructure.
The multiple display outputs are useful in a wide variety of applications. In security DVRs, it can be used to output two sets of concurrent full HD video mosiac displays with 32+ channels of standard definition video without having to downscale too much for the limitations of only 1 HD display screen resolution.
In video conferencing, it is useful to output to two parallel HD displays: one for the participants in the video call and one for shared presentations.
DM8168 and DM8148 both have an integrated HDMI transmitter. Additional display outputs are supported using BT1120 digital video output ports that can output 1080p60 video to an additional HD screen. DM8168 and DM8148 both also support SD composite output and DM8168 includes HD component output as well using integrated video DACs.
Hope this helps in providing some examples of the potential applications for multiple concurrent HD display outputs.
Jeremiah Golston, Texas Instruments
Sign in to Reply
hm
3/2/2011 12:46 PM EST
JG, Thanks for elaboration. I also visited TI and watched your 5 minutes video.
However, there is large market for single channel - One HD CMOS sensor interface - 3MP/5MP or better and HDMI/ USB 2.0 outputs. I also tried your other development kit from Leopard Imaging. Howeve, it lacks HDMI output.
Will you soon bring single channel solution with HDMI/USB output? Or is TM8148 is solution to it?
I see development kit for DM8168, do you have one for DM8148? Will you please also explain difference between DM8147 adn DM8148?
Sign in to Reply
jgolston
3/2/2011 4:06 PM EST
hm,
Camera solutions are important target market for DM8148 family. DM8148 includes the key capabilities you are looking for including ability to capture 3MP/5MP as well as HDMI and USB 2.0 output.
We will be announcing more details on DM8148 development kit over the next several months.
DM8148 includes a GPU while the DM8147 does not.
Jeremiah Golston, Texas Instruments
Sign in to Reply