Mirics targets ARM processor-based mobile computing devices with DAB & DAB+

This expands Mirics’ ARM Cortex-A9 processor-based FlexiTV platform that already boasts T-DMB. The latest development for ARM Cortex applications processors also demonstrates Mirics' on-going commitment to enable platform agnostic broadcast content, while substantially reducing the cost and footprint of adding TV and radio reception to tablet devices.



“Taking our existing DAB+ product to the ARM Cortex architecture was the next step in our on-going CPU migration,” said Simon Atkinson, Mirics President. “The figures on the ARM platform are very impressive, with the demodulator taking less than 8% of a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A9. The ARM Cortex-A9 processors are the de-facto standard embedded applications processors for many mobile computing devices, so the architecture was the natural choice for us to target with FlexiTV.



Lance Howarth, EVP Marketing, ARM commented, “Mirics’ DAB+ solution demonstrates that the efficient NEON™ media processing engine, which is an integral part of all ARM Cortex™-A series processors including the Cortex-A15 and recently announced Cortex-A7 processors, is capable of enabling a broad range of compelling multimedia and signal processing features, including software TV and radio, on the latest generation of mobile computing devices”



DAB+ is an extension of DAB – it uses the same physical layer but encodes the audio using AAC giving the consumer improved reception. In addition its higher compression ratio can provide broadcasts either more channels at equivalent quality or frees up space for program associated data services.

Hong Kong-based USmart Electronic Products Ltd. (USmart) is the first Mirics partner to demonstrate a FlexiTV based DAB+ product during the recent Hong Kong Electronics Fair, receiving DAB+ through an Android player running on the Samsung Exynos 4210 CPU in the Galaxy SII.



Ben Wong, CEO, USmart, commented: “This is very neat as it makes it a nice application for ARM Cortex processor-based tablets now that DAB+ has been deployed in Hong Kong.”

Mirics DAB and DAB+ solutions are available for evaluation and licensing now and join their T-DMB Korean and ISDB-T 1-Seg Japanese mobile TV products launched in early 2010.

It is hoped that the DAB and DAB+ solutions will be demonstrated on smartphones next year.