C2 Microsystems has brought out a
high definition media for broadband-connected set-top box and
digital TV applications.
"It's the first full HD media processor which decodes all the
standard digital broadcast formats, and all the Internet delivery
codecs up to 720p", C2's Neil Bullock told EW, "and it can adapt to
new media codecs."
Called the CC1200 family, the processors are designed for media
applications that require full HD video decoding and presentation
with high performance applications processing.
"We're designed into three of the top six TVs", said Bullock,
"currently 90% of our sales are in Asia, but we are looking to sell
more in Europe. Europe is more open to more product diversity -
which we can assist."
Some members of the CC1200 family are capable of video encoding
and transcoding for features such as video messaging and place
shifting.
The processors use formats such as HTML / JavaScript, Java,
Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight.
The processors have a dual-core SMP architecture capable of a
CoreMark greater than 1000 and the equivalent of 1000 DMIPS at
350MHz. The devices also accelerate DirectFB and OpenVG in
hardware, delivering significant performance improvements in
graphics benchmarks.
The processors decode H.264, VC-1 /WMV-9, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4
video standards at Full HD resolution, and support the decoding of
the widest range of internet video content in formats such as AVS,
RMVB, On2 VP6, and H.263 at up to 720p resolution. SD resolution
encoding in a variety of formats is supported on certain
devices.
All of the devices are SOCs, integrating the standard interfaces
required for connected STB and connected digital TV
applications.
The processors integrate the Jazz 2 media processor, a hybrid
applications / content processing architecture which blends a dual
core RISC processor with a SIMD vector unit for greatest
flexibility in video format support and with Codec Acceleration
Processors for highest performance on the most demanding video
content.
This is coupled with a high performance 175 Mpixels/s 2D
graphics processor, a high quality image processing engine
incorporating advanced de-interlacing and scaling algorithms and a
security processor for secure key management and acceleration of
cryptographic operations.
All processing elements have access to DRAM memory through a
6.4GB/s DDR-2 memory controller that is specifically designed to
manage the differing bandwidth and latency requirements of media
and applications processing.
System interfaces include: digital audio and video input and
output, HDMI and analogue component / S-Video / Composite output,
10/100/1000Mb interface to Ethernet PHY, SATA-II HDD / ODD storage
interface, NAND Flash storage interface, dual USB interface with
OTG capability, SD / MMC card interface, dual digital broadcast
transport stream input with smart card support, PCIe and PCMCIA
expansion interfaces and a variety of low-speed serial
interfaces.
The hardware resources are coupled with a Linux-based software
development kit that is optimized for internet-connected consumer
electronics applications that require support for multiple
concurrent media and networking operations. C2's Media Framework
manages the hard real time audio and video processing functions for
multiple streams within an embedded system footprint. The software
development kit uses proven open-source components such as Qt and
WebKit to enable the development of applications.
The media processor and associated software architecture are
designed to allow scaling to address the diverse requirements of
emerging applications.
The first two devices of the CC1200 family, the CC1202 and
CC1203 are intended for high performance decoder-only and encoder /
decoder applications respectively.
Device samples, hardware development platforms and software
development kits are available immediately to qualified customers.
Products based on CC1200 family devices are expected to be
available to consumers in Q1 2010.