Designed in Surrey, ZiiLabs has introduced the first
1080p Hi-profile (Blu-ray quality) media processor for
handhelds.
Called ZMS-08, it offers H.264 1080p video playback, 720p video
conferencing, 1080p 24frame/s encode, OpenGL ES 2.0 at 1Gpixel/s,
and a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 with 256K L2 cache for application
acceleration.
Made with a 64 processing element array on TSMC's 65nm process,
the device offers 31Gflop/s computation - three times that of its
24 element 90nm ZMS-06 predecessor.
An integrated HDMI controller means a device with this chip can
feed 1080p video to a suitable TV for display.
Power is half that of the previous chip, CEO Hock Leow told
Electronics Weekly, and, for example, the new device can
decode a 720p stream using under 200mW.
Application targets include handheld players, video
conferencing, media hubs, point of service kiosks, digital signage
and netbooks.
With its Cortex-A8, in this last application the chip could
handle all the media and application processing required in a Linux
netbook. "If you look at Atom today trying to play back HD, you get
a bunch of frame drops," said Leow. "The ZMS-08 capabilities and
peripheral integration, such as dual USB controllers and HDMI, are
blurring the boundary between the capabilities of the traditional
PC and connected device."
Particularly for digital signs, the device has four video
interfaces. "Three for displays and one camera to look at the crowd
to monitorise," said Leow. "Or one customer we are talking to wants
four cameras in a car - two on the sides, one on the front and one
on the back."
The chip has hardware to accelerate Adobe Flash playback, and
provision for 'hardware compositing' to lay graphics over
images.
The 64 32bit processors are arranged in eight identical
clusters. "Two clusters can do VGA video encode, and it takes six
for 1080p Hi Profile decode," said Leow.
To save power, clusters can operate at different
frequencies.
Libraries, called through an API, are offered for functions
including FFT, FIR filters, and inverse cosine transforms. "In
future we are looking at compilers," said Leow.
Support for Linux-based Android and the firm's own Plaszma
operating systems is available.
Audio processing comes from ZiiLabs' X-Fi package which includes
surround sound for headphones, stereo up-mix to surround sound,
acoustic echo cancellation and microphone beam forming.
Packaging is 13x13mm 424pin FBGA, and volume is scheduled for
the 1st quarter of 2010.
Several hardware development kits are available including the
iPhone-like Egg.