Philips ships video-enabled handset chips and announces next generation

Soon cellular handsets will integrate streaming video support as regularly as they do cameras and Bluetooth today. In the latest print issue of EDN, “Mobile video: Participants follow multiple paths,” chronicles the video developments. Meanwhile Philips Semiconductor announced last week that their Nexperia 6100 series multimedia-enabled handset chip set is now shipping in Samsung phones. Powered by the PCF5213 baseband, the chipset is capable of supporting 15-fps QCIF (quarter common image format) video streamed across EDGE networks. EDGE networks support downstream data rates as high as 220 kbps. The PCF5213 is based on an ARM 9 processor, augmented with multimedia accelerator blocks developed by Philips. The company’s just announced next-generation multimedia baseband, the PNX5220, will support 30-fps video rates. A complete chip set based on the PNX5220 will ship in the second quarter.