Processor adds high-performance multimedia capabilities to portable devices

The SH-MobileR incorporates a VPU4 (Video Processing Unit 4) image processing IP supporting the encoding and decoding for the MPEG-4 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (referred to below as ‘H.264’) video compression standards used for digital broadcasting. The VPU4 is capable of 30 fps (frame per second) encoding and decoding of VGA-size moving images at 66 MHz operation. This enables H.264 compressed content to be decoded and played back as smoothly as a normal TV picture and allows support for digital broadcasting services in Europe, South Korea, and elsewhere, in addition to Japan’s ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial) broadcasting.

An on-chip a camera interface allows direct connection to a 5-megapixel camera module, together with high-speed image capture and processing functions. A JPEG hardware accelerator enables high-speed display and snap photos of JPEG images, while a 24-bit TFT colour LCD controller offers high-quality image display. A new addition is an on-chip 2D graphics accelerator that improves rendering performance. This allows fast and sophisticated rendering to be implemented even on the complex GUI (Graphical User Interface) display of a device’s operation menu screen, for example.

The SH-MobileR incorporates a high-performance SH4AL-DSP CPU core offering processing performance of 478 MIPS (million instructions per second) at a maximum operating frequency of 266 MHz, providing ample power for parallel processing of a browser and multiple applications, as well as operation by a general-purpose OS such as Linux.

Middleware includes H.264, MPEG-4, MP3 and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), plus other video and audio middleware, for a total system software solution.

The SH-MobileR processor comes in a 449-pin BGA (21 mm × 21 mm, 0.8 mm pin pitch) package.