Renesas Technology Enhances Terrestrial Digital Broadcast Capable Product Lineup in SH-Mobile Application Processor Series

Renesas Technology Enhances Terrestrial Digital Broadcast Capable Product Lineup in SH-Mobile Application Processor Series

There are two new models comprising a version incorporating image quality improving functions and a small-package version, providing terrestrial digital broadcast capable mobile phone solutions.

Tokyo, September 25, 2007−− Renesas Technology Corp. today announced two new models augmenting the terrestrial digital broadcast capable product lineup in the SH-Mobile*1 Series of mobile phone application processors: the SH-MobileL3V2 (product name: SH7362) featuring enhanced image quality improvement functions and lower power consumption, and the small-package SH-MobileUL (product name: SH7363), offering excellent cost performance, for popular mobile phone models. Sample shipments will begin in October 2007 in Japan.

These two new models are functionally enhanced or specialized versions of Renesas Technology's current SH-Mobile L3V (product name: SH7354), and offer the following features.

(1) Common Features

1-1) High-performance, low-power-consumption multi-CODEC video processing IP
Both models incorporate 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*2 terrestrial digital broadcasting, and achieves 30 fps (frame per second) encoding and decoding performance at VGA definition. This IP supports MPEG-4 encoding/decoding and VC-1 decoding as well as H.264, enabling these products to handle various moving image applications such as video mail, video phones, and video clips. In addition, these application processors can support digital broadcasting systems used outside Japan, such as DVB-H*3 in Europe and DMB*4 in South Korea.

1-2) High-performance 266 MHz SH4AL-DSP CPU core
These new models incorporate an SH4AL-DSP CPU core that achieves high processing performance of 478 MIPS (million instructions per second) at a maximum operating frequency of 266 MHz, enabling high-speed processing of various applications.

(2) SH-MobileL3V2 Features
The SH-MobileL3V2 offers lower power consumption together with enhanced functionality through the provision of image quality improvement functions. 2-1) On-chip image quality improvement functions providing versatile, high-quality video display
Image quality improvement functions comprising a gamma correction function and enlargement edge enhancement function have been newly incorporated. The gamma correction function includes three kind of correction - a. histogram extension type gamma correction, b. screen brightness correspondence type gamma correction, and c. adaptive type chroma correction - and allows adjustment of image quality for individual TV scenes, enabling clear, high-quality video display to be achieved. The enlargement edge enhancement function prevents fuzziness when a QVGA-size image is enlarged to VGA or WVGA size by performing enhancement and inter-dot compensation in edge areas, and noise elimination by means of a filter. These functions enable versatile, high-quality video display to be achieved, and allow high-quality terrestrial digital broadcasts to be viewed on a mobile phone.

2-2) On-chip hardware dedicated audio DSP contributing to lower power consumption
A hardware 24-bit dedicated audio DSP is included for audio processing, providing ample power to handle audio processing using AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), MP3, or a similar compression system. Also, while processing of the aacPlus audio compression system used for terrestrial digital broadcast has previously required CPU processing capacity of approximately 50 MHz, the use of a dedicated audio DSP enables to eliminate the need of CPU processing. Processing by means of dedicated hardware results in lower current consumption than with the previous product, enabling TV viewing time to be extended.

(3) SH-MobileUL Features
With an optimized set of peripheral functions specialized for terrestrial digital broadcast applications, and the use of a small 8 mm x 8 mm package, the SH-MobileUL offers excellent cost performance in terms of functions and price. The use of a small package has enabled the mounting area to be reduced by approximately 30% or more compared with the previous Renesas Technology product. The SH-MobileUL is ideal for use in popular mobile phone models with terrestrial digital broadcast capability, and will contribute to the achievement of lower mobile phone prices.

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The market has recently witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of mobile phones and other portable information devices supporting terrestrial digital broadcasting. Renesas Technology led the world with the release of the SH-Mobile Series of dedicated microprocessors for application processing in mobile phone systems, and has contributed to the advancement of multimedia applications for mobile phones. Renesas was also quick to release SH-Mobile Series products for terrestrial digital broadcast capable mobile phones, and these are currently used in many mobile phone systems. Now, with the popularity of terrestrial digital broadcast capable mobile phones increasing at an accelerating rate, market needs include the implementation of lower-priced mobile phone systems as well as high-added-value products offering higher-quality viewing.

In response to these needs, Renesas Technology has now, based on the company’s current SH-MobileL3V, developed the SH-MobileL3V2 incorporating impressive image quality improvement functions, and the SH-MobileUL featuring compact size and excellent cost performance through optimization of functions necessary for terrestrial digital broadcast capability.

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Both of these two new models incorporate a VPU high-performance video processing IP and a high-performance SH4AL-DSP CPU core.

As moving image compression standards, the VPU supports both H.264 used in terrestrial digital broadcasting and MPEG-4 used for video clips, video phones, and so forth, and implements high-speed encoding/decoding processing at low power consumption. This allows the CPU to perform other processing when H.264 moving image data is being processed by the VPU, enabling the frequency to be kept low and low power consumption to be achieved.

The CPU core offers high processing performance of 478 MIPS at a maximum operating frequency of 266 MHz, and achieves unit-frequency performance of 1.8 MIPS/MHz, ample for operating a terrestrial digital broadcast capable browser.

The SH-MobileL3V2 enables extended viewing of terrestrial digital broadcasts with higher image quality. The provision of image quality improvement functions such as a gamma correction function and enlargement edge enhancement function enable higher-quality terrestrial digital broadcast displays to be achieved on mobile phones.

A further feature is an on-chip hardware 24-bit dedicated audio DSP. Performing processing by means of dedicated hardware enables the CPU's processing load to be reduced, further reducing power consumption and making a longer TV viewing time possible.

A camera interface that allows direct connection of a 5-megapixel-class camera module is also provided. This makes it possible to capture large volumes of image data from a high-definition camera at high speed, and perform various kinds of display, such as electronic image zoom display, screen overlapping, and so forth, by means of an OSD (On Screen Display) function, HWC (Hardware Cursor) function, and the like. Furthermore, BT.709 type YUV data is supported for ISDB-T broadcasting. As a result, it is possible to perform extraction of TV broadcast data and conversion to a JPEG image without loss of image quality. A variety of other on-chip peripheral functions suited to mobile phone system use are also incorporated, including an LCD controller supporting 24-bit TFT color liquid crystal panels, an SD memory card*5 interface, a SIM card interface, and a sound interface.

The SH-MobileUL offers excellent cost performance as a processor featuring functions especially suited to mobile phone terrestrial digital broadcast applications. While incorporating the same moving image engine and high-performance CPU core as the SH-MobileL3V2, the SH-MobileUL is a cost-performance oriented product featuring peripheral functions optimized for terrestrial digital broadcast applications as well as more compact dimensions thanks to a smaller pin count.

The SH-MobileL3V2 uses a 281-pin BGA package (9 mm x 11 mm, 0.5 mm pin pitch), and the SH-MobileUL a small 224-pin BGA package (8 mm x 8 mm, 0.5 mm pin pitch). The SH-MobileL3V2 has 256-Mbit SDRAM, and the SH-MobileUL 128-Mbit SDRAM, as an SiP (System in Package), enabling compact mounting.

Renesas Technology will exhibit these new products at CEATEC JAPAN 2007 being held at Makuhari Messe from October 2.

Renesas Technology will continue to develop SH-Mobile Series products that keep pace with evolving multimedia applications and higher speeds in mobile phone systems, and to ensure the timely release of products that fully meet the needs of the market.

Notes: 1. SH-Mobile (SuperH™ Mobile Application Processor): An original Renesas Technology processor for mobile phone systems that is connected to a baseband LSI and performs dedicated processing of audio, video, and similar multimedia applications
SuperH is a trademark of Renesas Technology Corp.
2. ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial): A terrestrial digital broadcasting standard developed in Japan. Broadcasting for mobile devices such as mobile phones uses only one of the 13 ISDB-T segments, and is therefore known as one-segment (or One-Seg) broadcasting.
3. DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast for Handhelds): A mobile device version of the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) standard developed in Europe
4. DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting): A digital TV broadcasting standard for mobile devices developed in South Korea. There are two versions: Terrestrial DMB (T-DMB), and Satellite DMB (S-DMB).
5. The SD memory card is a small memory card whose specification was originally formulated by 3C (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, and SanDisk Corporation) and has been progressively extended by the SDA (SD Card Association