Providing The Processing Power For Consumer Multimedia

Media processors are instrumental in bridging the gap between computers and consumer electronics. Currently, they are used mainly to enhance the multimedia capabilities of PCs. Shortly, we may also expect to see their application in consumer electronics products that require a high degree of flexibility or interactivity. A typical media processor like the new chip described here’ uses a mixture of concepts from function-specific implementations, DSPs and general purpose processors. It can fulfil a variety of purposes in a ‘multimedia-enhanced’ TV platform. INTRODUCTION Multimedia has been the ‘hottest’ subject in the computer market for the last few years. Graphics, sound, and still and moving pictures greatly enhance users’ appreciation of their PCs. With such multimedia applications, computers enter an area that was formerly the exclusive domain of consumer electronics. In addition to the multimedia experience, the traditional PC assets of interactivity and customization still hold a competitive edge over consumer electronics equipment. On the other hand, the priceperformance ratio of consumer electronics equipment, i.e. the audio and video quality per dollar, is an order of magnitude better than that of current computer-based multimedia solutions. In addition, the robustness and easeof-use of consumer equipment is high. We expect to see a growing number of products that mix typical PC and consumer functions. Examples are interactive set top boxes, cheap network computers, and televisions with Internet browsing capabilities. For these products to be successful, they must offer the best of both worlds, i.e. they should be able to run many different multimedia applications with high quality and at low cost. To achieve this apparently unrealistic goal, it is necessary to reconsider the traditional approaches to product implementation, i.e. for PC manufacturers the general purpose processor based implementations, for consumer 1. The IC is available commercially as TMlOOO (formerly known only as TM 1). electronics manufacturers the fixed function implementations. Media processors are an attractive alternative for this market: they offer a fully software-programmable, highperformance solution at affordable prices. In the full paper, we shall elaborate on the relationship between media processors, general purpose processors, programmable DSPs and function specific implementations. A NEW MEDIA PROCESSOR FAMILY The first of a new family of media processors has recently been released; derivative products are under development. The new chip [l, 21 consists of the following components: A very powerful VLIW DSP-CPU that runs most of the non-trivial parts of the multimedia application software, typically on top of a small real-time operating system DMA-driven multimedia input and output units that format the data V LD CO-PROCESSOR ’ VIDEO IN