UK chip designer 3Dlabs is being spun off by its parent Creative Labs after three years spent developing a new multi-core chip architecture for high definition TV in handheld devices.
3Dlabs had concentrated on high end 3D graphics, but after being bought by Creative in 2002 it changed direction and developed the DMS architecture with three clusters each with eight 32-bit cores optimised for 3D graphics and video processing. The first part is aimed at 3D satellite navigation systems and high-end personal media players so that the content can be played back on a home HD-ready TV screen.
“For something that does H.264 high definition and 3D graphics at the same time we do not see any one with that capability in one chip but I do expect Texas Instruments, Broadcom and Nvidia to come out in this space because it’s a very large market,” said Hock Leow, chief executive at 3Dlabs.
The spin-out is to reassure potential customers that they will be competing on even terms with Creative, said Leow. “The other thing is from Creative’s shareholder’s perspective it’s a better return on their investment and customers and investors have encouraged us to spin out,” he said. “Creative is not a semiconductor company, they are a product company and the DNA is different.”
The first chip, the DMS02, can handle HD playback at 720 pixel resolution and encode standard definition TV to the MPEG4 standard, as well as handling 3D graphics. “The performance for HD encode is roughly the same for standard definition D1 encode – they balance out quite nicely,” said Nick Murphy, vice-president of architecture at 3Dlabs. “But we can see how it will scale to 1080i or 1080p.”
Set-top box designs are in the roadmap, but only later on. The chip is currently built in a conservative 130nm process and discussions are going on this week on whether to go to 90nm or skip a generation to 65nm, said Leow.