Mobile processor aims for high-end handsets

The SH-Mobile3A (SH73380) is the latest addition to the SH-Mobile series of mobile phone application processors.

The SH-Mobile3A (SH73380) is the latest addition to the SH-Mobile series of mobile phone application processors.

The device offers the latest multimedia processing features, including support for terrestrial digital TV broadcasts and 5Mpixel camera modules, and a JPEG hardware accelerator for still images.

This makes it ideal for use in high-end mobile phones.

The SH-Mobile3A incorporates the newly developed VPU4 video processing IP.

This provides high speed processing support for the video compression standards H.264 adopted for ISDB-T, a "one-segment broadcasting" system for delivering terrestrial digital TV broadcasts to portable devices, and MPEG-4 used for movie and videophone applications.

The VPU4 is capable of decoding VGA size video at a rate of 30frame/s.

Furthermore it incorporates a transport stream interface that allows separate processing of video and audio data without CPU load.

The device can also support multiple digital TV broadcasting formats for mobile phones, including DVB-H and DMB.

The VPU4 incorporates seven-stage pipeline processing technology that reduces power consumption either through the use of lower clock frequencies or through dynamic variation of the clock numbers of the individual stages.

As a result, current consumption by the IP core while operating at 66MHz is only approximately 36mA when decoding VGA size video at a rate of 30frame/s.

The SH-Mobile3A is equipped with a camera interface that supports direct connection to a 5Mpixel camera module and incorporates image processing functions.

The interface allows large volumes of image data to be captured and displayed with a variety of options, including digital zoom and overlay using on-screen display (OSD) and hardware cursor (HWC) functions, for example.

The SH-Mobile3A also includes a video output unit compatible with NTSC and Pal, allowing the mobile phone to be connected to a TV to display high-resolution images captured using the mobile phone's built-in camera.

The processor is the first device in the SH-Mobile series to incorporate a newly developed JPEG hardware accelerator.

This realises a maximum still photo successive capture speed of 0.02s per photo or better for VGA size and 0.1s per photo or better for SXGA size.

This makes the creation of a wide range of attractive camera applications possible by allowing users to take photos in rapid succession.

The SH-Mobile3A is based on the SH4AL-DSP CPU core that offers a processing performance of 389MIPS at a maximum operating frequency of 216MHz.

This gives a performance by frequency unit of 1.8MIPS/MHz - enough to handle a browser for viewing one-segment broadcasts.

This capability also enables the device to handle parallel processing of multiple high load applications and operations using a general purpose OS such as Linux for a greater processing load than a dedicated OS.

Additionally, the SH-Mobile3A offers a variety of peripheral functions ideal for mobile phone systems, including an LCD controller compatible with TFT colour LCD panels and a sound interface.

The device is available in a 409-pin CSP (12 x 12 x 1.4mm, 0.5mm pin pitch).

Sample shipments will begin in April 2005.

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