Processors add HD video playback and recording support to Renesas Technology's popular SH772x series of low power multimedia processors

The SH7724 incorporates a dedicated video processing unit for ultra-low power video processing. This VPU5F (Video Processing Unit 5F) high-performance multi-codec video processing IP delivers approximately 2.5 times the processing performance of the earlier SH7723, enabling encoding (recording) and decoding (playback) of HD video (1,280 × 720 pixels) at 30 frames per second (fps). MPEG-4 encoding/decoding and VC-1 decoding are also supported, providing compatibility with a wide range of video applications, such as HD video and security cameras, One-Seg terrestrial digital TV broadcast standard and other digital broadcast formats used outside of Japan, such as DVB-H, which is used in Europe; DMB, which is used in South Korea; and CMMB, which is used in China.

The SH7724 is built around the SH-4A high-performance CPU core, which is also incorporated in products designed for high-end built-in car navigation systems, and integrates a floating-point processing unit (FPU) to improve the efficiency of video and audio processing. In the SH7724, the maximum operating frequency of the CPU has been boosted to 500 MHz, approximately 1.3 times as fast as the earlier SH7723. When operating at 500 MHz, general processing performance is 900 million instructions per second (MIPS) and FPU processing performance is 3.5 giga [billion] floating-point operations per second (GFLOPS).

This enables parallel processing of multiple applications concurrently with Audio/Video processing applications and also a simultaneous dual-screen display capability, and provides ample processing power to handle a general-purpose OS such as Windows® CE or Linux, either of which imposes a larger processing load than a custom OS would.

As in the earlier SH7723, the SH7724 integrates on-chip 64 kilobytes of primary cache memory (32 kilobytes each for instructions and data) and a full 256 kilobytes of secondary cache memory (for both instructions and data). This contributes to faster software processing. In addition, the synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) interface supports connections to both 1.8 V DDR2 (Double Data Rate 2) and MobileDDR, which is very useful for battery-powered devices requiring low power consumption.

For map rendering, the SH7724 integrates a 2-D graphics accelerator that delivers better rendering performance than the earlier SH7723. This enables high-quality map rendering at high speed.

For audio processing, the SH7724 has a 24-bit dedicated audio DSP that supports compression formats that include Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MP3, and Windows Media Audio (WMA)*8 with plenty of processing power to spare. Since the 24-bit dedicated audio DSP also handles the aacPlus (Advanced Audio Coding Plus) audio compression format used by terrestrial digital broadcasts, this processing no longer needs to be performed by software. The resulting reduction in the CPU's processing load is equivalent to approximately 50 MHz. This reduces power consumption and makes it possible to enjoy TV broadcasts for a longer period of time.

The many on-chip peripheral functions include a 24-bit TFT color LCD controller, two USB 2.0 Host/Function modules (with high-speed data transfer mode support), an ATAPI controller for connecting a hard disk or DVD drive, two SD host controllers with support for high-speed data transfer mode, and an Ethernet MAC (Media Access Control) controller for applications such as IP security cameras that supports connection to a 10M/100M bps (bits per second) Ethernet LAN. This full complement of high-performance functions helps to reduce the number of components in the system and to lower the overall cost while maintaining excellent performance.

Software solutions are provided for the total system, including video middleware supporting H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, MPEG-4, and Windows Media Video (WMV), and audio middleware supporting aacPlus.

A number of system solutions will be made available to help customers shorten development cycles and reduce system costs, including a reference platform incorporating the SH7724 and a graphics library that supports the functions of the 2-D graphics accelerator. The reference platform makes it possible to study system functions, evaluate performance, and develop software efficiently. The graphics library conforms to the GDI-Sub specification, which supports Windows® Automotive 5.0 Service Pack 2 from Microsoft Corporation, enabling customers to realize a wide variety of map rendering functions using the 2-D graphics accelerator.

There are also plans to provide support packages for IP camera devices and the like, including Linux BSPs and video codec middleware.

Two package options are available to enable more compact systems: 449-pin BGA (21 mm × 21 mm, 0.8 mm pin pitch) and 441-pin POP-compatible BGA (14 mm × 14 mm, 0.5 mm pin pitch).