Toshiba Introduces Video Processing Chip With Integrated DRAM.

Toshiba Corp. has developed a single-chip, low-power MPEG-4 encoding and decoding processor with integrated memory, a solution which the company hopes will finally bring full-motion video to wireless devices.

The new chip, which goes by the decidedly unsexy moniker of TC35273XB, integrates an MPEG-4 codec with 12Mb of embedded DRAM. According to Toshiba officials, the chip features low capacitance on-chip connections, without any degradation in performance; power dissipation is 80 milliwatts. The company says that similar solutions--particularly those using off-chip memory--use nearly double the amount of power as the Toshiba chip.

The TC35273XB offers video at 15 frames per second in a 176 x 144 pixel video display, along with support for multiple audio CODECs including Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR) speech at a clock rate of 70MHz. The video core includes a 16-bit RISC processor and dedicated hardware accelerators. The firmware for the RISC processor is downloaded into the chip's embedded DRAM before beginning any operation. Additional applications, such as H.263, are performed by using the appropriate firmware.

Toshiba plans to release engineering samples in the second quarter of the year, with mass production slated for Q3. Sample pricing for the TC35273XB chip is $55. The company is hoping the chip will find a home in mobile devices like PDAs and phones, though streaming video to such devices is a practical impossibility even with so-called 3G wireless service. Nevertheless, market research firm Cahners InStat predicts approximately 30 million cumulative shipments of MPEG-4 chips from 2001 through 2003, with a steep rise to 60 million shipments in 2004. The firm says most of the chips will be deployed in the mobile handset market.