Texas Instruments Announces OMAP 3 Architecture For Mobile Phones
Texas Instruments Incorporated announced its new OMAP 3 architecture for mobile phones at at 3GSM World Congress. OMAP 3 application processors will power a new class of mobile phones that are to improve entertainment and productivity features and integrate capabilities of cameras, gaming devices, portable video and music players, laptops and PDAs. TI's first OMAP 3-based device, the OMAP3430 processor, will be the first wireless processor to use 65-nanometer process technology. The OMAP3430 processor will sample this year.
OMAP 3 is the industry's first application processor platform to be based on the new ARM CortexTM-A8 superscalar microprocessor core, which delivers 3X more performance than the ARM11 core used in OMAP 2 processors. Combined with TI's DSP technology, the increased ARM performance boosts productivity and entertainment applications on the mobile phone, while maintaining power efficiencies expected in a handset.
This new OMAP 3 processor will offer the first high-definition quality player in a mobile phone processor, allowing users to download movies onto their phone and watch them on an HD monitor. The OMAP3430 processor also offers the first DVD-quality camcorder capability in a phone - a 4X improvement from the OMAP2430 processor - enabled by IVA 2+, a second-generation, power-optimized version of TI's imaging, video and audio accelerator used in TI's DaVinci technology. Leveraging the increased capabilities of the IVA 2+ accelerator, the chip will enable mobile phones to record and play movies at DVD quality for all popular standards, such as MPEG4, Windows Media Video 9 (VC-1), H.264 and RealVideo 10, in addition to videoconferencing.
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The OMAP3430 processor will support all known mobile DTV decode standards worldwide and will also include S-video output support for higher quality video display on an external TV monitor or projector, enabling easy sharing of multimedia presentations.
Capturing images at 12 megapixels with less than one second shot-to-shot delay, the OMAP3430 processor enables capabilities of today's highest performance point-and-shoot digital still cameras, a 2X improvement over the OMAP2430 processor. This is accomplished through the integration of a camera Image Signal Processor (ISP) to lower system cost and offer handset manufacturers differentiation in image quality. The OMAP3430 processor ISP is based on TI digital still camera technology shipping in volume today and is optimized to address mobile imaging requirements. With the increased popularity of using mass storage devices for saving digital media, the OMAP3430 processor will have fully compliant interfaces for connectivity to large hard-disk drive devices.
The OMAP3430 processor leverages TI's SmartReflex technologies to dynamically control voltage, frequency and power based on device activity, modes of operation, process technology and temperature variation, saving power. The OMAP3430 processor will also include TI's M-Shield advanced hardware and software security framework, which enables robust protection of high-premium copyrighted digital media content, secure protocol applications and e-commerce applications like ticketing, banking, brokering and shopping.
The OMAP3430 processor has been designed to support all major high-level operating systems (HLOS), including Linux, Symbian OS, and Windows Mobile. Like all of TI's OMAP processors, the OMAP3430 processor will be supported by the OMAP Ecosystem, which is comprised of the OMAP Developer Network and OMAP Technology Centers, a worldwide network of third-party software and hardware developers, as well as systems integrators, development tool providers and content providers.
TI's OMAP3430 multimedia processor is expected to sample in mid-2006, with volume production scheduled for 2007.
Source: Texas Instruments Incorporated
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