News and New Products

ISSCC papers look toward high-definition in your handset

The foundation for HD video in a handset is sufficient wireless bandwidth to deliver the bitstream, coupled with sufficient band flexibility to work with whatever broadband signal is available at the moment. This requirement demands broadband transceivers—WCDMA, and beyond—that are both effective and highly integrated. And at least three papers at the conference will speak directly to this need.

By Ron Wilson, Executive Editor -- EDN, 1/2/2009

An early look at papers to be presented at the 2009 ISSCC (International Solid State Circuits Conference) this February suggest the imminent arrival of HD (high-definition) video in your hand. Underlying technology in broadband communications to support the demanding data stream are now in silicon, and a new generation of HD-targeted media SOCs is making its debut. Real HD in handsets—whatever the practicality of the medium in this format may turn out to be—cannot be far behind.

The foundation for HD video in a handset is sufficient wireless bandwidth to deliver the bitstream, coupled with sufficient band flexibility to work with whatever broadband signal is available at the moment. This requirement demands broadband transceivers—WCDMA, and beyond—that are both effective and highly integrated. And at least three papers at the conference will speak directly to this need.

ST-NXP Wireless, the former and now merged wireless groups of ST, NXP, and Ericsson Mobile Platforms,  will present a zero-IF receiver covering 3+4 WEDGE (wideband CDMA plus EDGE) bands. The die has been designed to operate without SAW filters on the front end, and to be integrated into 7x7-mm SiP transceiver for production. The receiver consumes 92 mW.

Meanwhile Skyworks Solutions and Spectra-Linear will present a 3G multiband transceiver chip covering WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA, and EGPRS standards. And Qualcomm will debut a single-chip UMTS/EGSM transceiver with integrated GPS reception, drawing only 69 mA. Both of these chips eliminate SAW filters at key points, and both support receiver diversity.

As multiband transceivers shrinking into single chips, application-level SOCs are preparing to handle the HD content at handset-compatible power levels. Taiwan's MediaTek will describe a Blue-ray player SOC that has been designed from the algorithms up to be cost-effective in low-priced players. The 90-nm, less than 8x8-mm die can perform an H.264 decode, 60 fps image generation, and HDMI 1.3 output to a display module with 1.6 W power.

While the MediaTek part appears aimed at handheld players, an application processor from Renesas is aimed squarely at handsets. The chip is said to decode H.264 into 1080p, 30 fps video while consuming only 342 mW. The 65-nm die measures 6.4x6.5 mm.

Interestingly enough none of the above chips is pushing the state of the market in process technology or clock frequency. As we prepare mobile devices for more and more challenging media streams and operating scenarios, the focus has shifted from the latest process technology and the greatest speed to the lowest operating voltage and the most useful work per joule of energy. Especially indicative of this trend is MediaTek's decision to examine their algorithms in light of the final cost-effectiveness of the SOC, rather than selecting an algorithm and then attempting to shoehorn the implementation into the final system requirements. It's a new game that has not yet been entirely reflected in the capabilities of tool flows.