NEC MPEG2 Codecs target iappliances, STBs

By Bernard Cole
iApplianceWeb
(08/26/02, 03:47:37 AM EDT)

Santa Clara, Ca. -- NEC Electronics Inc. today has two new ultra-low-power MPEG2 audio/visual (AV) encoder/decoder (codec) devices that should fill the bill for portable computer and iappliances as well as set-top box applications.

Fabricated with NEC's 0.13-micron CMOS process, according to NEC the uPD61151 and uPD61152) reduce power consumption by 70 percent over its previous MPEG2 encoder products -- 330 milliwatts (mW) typical at 1.5 volts.

The MCU-based SOC devices integrate an audio encoder, video encoder and the company's V850 32-bit microcontroller core. Also incorporated into the device is a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus interface, allowing designs in which a program or transport stream to the hard drive over the PCI bus rather than the local bus

The MPEG2 AV encoder/decoder devices include a PCI Rev 2.1 host bus interface. The devices also feature support for low-power SDRAM with 2.5V input/output (I/O); encoder and transcoder functions compatible with other NEC MPEG codecs; audio/video playback capabilities for mobile use and support for most audio compression algorithms including MP3, WMA, AAC and DolbyDigital (uPD61152 product only).

Samples of the uPD61151 and uPD61152 are now available in a 273-pin plastic ball-grid array (PBGA) package (15mm x 15mm). Volume production is expected to begin in September 2002. Pricing for the uPD61151 and uPD61152 MPEG2 devices is $19 in 10,000-unit quantities.

For more information, go to www.necel.com/digitalAV.