Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Sharp Microelectronics Europe | Subject: BlueStreak
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 18 January 2006
ARM-based SoCs power into multimedia
applications
Embedded World 2006 will see Sharp Microelectronics Europe unveil its newly developed SoC roadmap.
Embedded World 2006 will see Sharp Microelectronics Europe unveil its newly developed SoC roadmap The new ARM-based high-end processors from the company's BlueStreak series address the portable multimedia electronics market
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 26 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Sharp Microelectronics and Enea Embedded Technology are co-operating to optimise BlueStreak system-on-chip components, particularly for use in mobile terminal devices.
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Sharp Microelectronics now offers a total of nine microcontrollers under the name BlueStreak.
"In the field of mobile entertainment electronics, all developers are faced with the same challenge: on one hand, growing volumes of data and functionalities are demanding more processor performance, but then again, batteries can only provide a limited amount of power".
"The new SoCs offer a forward-looking approach as to how this dichotomy can be overcome", is how Gunter Wagschal, Product Marketing Manager for the SoC Division at Sharp Microelectronics Europe explains the significance of this development.
The new ARM-based SoCs in the BlueStreak series offer enough computing power to support multimedia applications in MPEG-4 or WMV format, while limiting the battery demands at the same time.
This means that they are predestined to form the core for the next generation of portable applications, such as media players, PDA's, DVB-H appliances, mobile phones, industrial handhelds, smart toys etc In 2005 Sharp responded to the more stringent demands being imposed on processor performance, increasing the clock speed of what have until now been the fastest SoCs in the BlueStreak range (the LH7A400 and LH7A404) to 250 and 266MHz, respectively.
However, in the middle and lower-end performance segments, the BlueStreak range also offers suitable solutions for a variety of application requirements.
Conversely, all of the processors in the family share a common feature: being equipped with a wide range of peripheral units, interfaces, and functionalities to facilitate integration.
Furthermore, all BlueStreak SoCs - in particular the fast versions represented by the LH7A400 and LH7A404 ARM9 processors - are designed to be used over the entire industrial temperature range (-40 to +85C).
Sharp is presenting the entire BlueStreak series, along with the latest reference designs for portable media players and the corresponding tool kits to support development engineers, at Embedded World 2006 on Stand 12-244.
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