Covering all the bases

-- EDN, 1/6/2000

Silicon Motion's LynxEM+ and Cougar3DM graphics chips span both the low-cost and the high-performance ends of the mobile-computing spectrum. LynxEM+, a 2-D-only PCI and AGP 1x accelerator, includes 2 Mbytes of frame-buffer DRAM in its multidie, 256-bump BGA package. Pin-compatible with, or, at minimum, a footprint subset of, higher end Cougar and Lynx variants for maximum design flexibility, LynxEM+'s dual-simultaneous-display drives LCD-plus-LCD, LCD-plus-CRT, and LCT-plus-TV combinations with hardware-accelerated landscape or portrait orientation. Each display supports independent full-screen, full-motion video, thanks to the chip's limited hardware assistance, which includes scaling, color conversion, and bob and weave. The displays also support independent graphics-refresh rates, resolutions, and color depths. The 135-MHz, 24-bit RAMDAC drives CRTs with resolution as great as 1280x1024 pixels, and LynxEM+ also incorporates a zoom-video input port.

For high-end platforms, Cougar3DM interfaces to 16 Mbytes of DRAM over dual 64-bit, 100-MHz buses and to the system over AGP 4x (backward-compatible with AGP 2x and 1x) or PCI. The triple-simultaneous-display combinations include dual-digital LCD-plus-LCD-plus-TV (with Macrovision support) and LCD-plus-CRT-plus-TV. Cougar3DM incorporates extensive 3-D-acceleration features and further accelerates DVD playback via hardware-motion compensation. The 200-MHz, 24-bit RAMDAC drives CRTs having resolution as great as 1600x1200 pixels. Both chips are now available; LynxEM+ costs $19.95 (20,000), and Cougar3DM costs $68 (10,000).

Silicon Motion Inc, 1-408-467-9388, www.siliconmotion.com.

-by Brian Dipert