Renesas Technology releases application processor for multimedia mobile phones

Like the existing SH-Mobile products that support terrestrial digital broadcasts, the SH-MobileUL2 incorporates a VPU (Video Processing Unit) high-performance video processing IP that supports the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (referred to below as H.264) moving image compression standard used in Japanese ISDB-T terrestrial digital broadcasting. It delivers high-performance video processing with low power consumption. The SH-MobileUL2 also adds on-chip dedicated video processing memory that boosts the video processing performance by approximately 30%, and achieves 30 fps (frames per second) encoding (recording) and decoding (playback) performance at D1 size (720 × 480 pixels), up from the VGA (640 × 480 pixels) definition supported by its predecessor.
This IP supports MPEG-4 encoding/decoding and VC-1 decoding as well as H.264, enabling the SH-MobileUL2 to handle a variety of moving image applications such as video e-mail, video phones, and camcorder-style video clips. In addition, it can support digital broadcasting systems used outside Japan, such as DVB-H in Europe and DMB*6 in South Korea.

The SH-MobileUL2 also integrates USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed) Host/Function support and a D/A converter for TV output on-chip. This contributes to a reduced system cost by minimising the total number of parts required. It also simplifies the system design and makes it possible to realize more compact handsets.

The device uses a 284-pin BGA package measuring 8 mm × 10 mm. It can be paired with a single SiP (System in Package) external memory device containing either 128 Mbits or 256 Mbits of DDR1 (Double-Data-Rate 1) mobile RAM. This contributes to further system compactness and reduces the current consumption during memory accesses.

The SH-MobileUL2 is built around the SH4AL-DSP CPU core, which delivers high processing performance of 478 MIPS at the maximum operating frequency of 266 MHz, and is capable of running many different types of applications at high speed. The device also includes a camera interface for direct connection of a 5-megapixel camera module. This allows high-speed reading of large-volume image data from a high-resolution camera and makes possible a variety of display features. Examples include the electronic zoom display of images, and a superimposed image display employing on-screen display (OSD) or hardware cursor (HWC) functionality.

A variety of other on-chip peripheral functions that are suited to mobile phone systems are also provided, including an LCD controller supporting TFT colour LCD panels, an SD memory card*7 interface, a CE-ATA hard disk interface for mobile phones, and a sound interface.