• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

MediaWorks, a Fabless Semiconductor Company, Launches with the Highest Integrated System-on-a-Chip for Solid State Camcorders

Posted on: Thursday, 12 February 2004, 06:00 CST

MediaWorks, a fabless semiconductor company:

¶ -- MediaWorks' MW301 enables OEMs and ODMs to offer high

resolution and performance at a fraction of the cost and size

as compared to costly tape-based digital video camcorders

¶ -- The highly programmable SoC enables OEMs and ODMs to address

forthcoming standards, ensuring leadership with rapid delivery

of products to market

¶ MediaWorks, a fabless semiconductor company, today announced its launch of the company's first product, the highly integrated MW301 System-on-a-Chip (SoC) providing ISO standard MPEG4 video. This media-centric SoC is designed to enable OEMs and original design manufacturers (ODMs) to offer DVD-quality resolution for video and stills for solid state camcorders along with a high level of functionality, reduced size, power and price. As such, MediaWorks' technology provides significant improvements over existing bulky and costly tape-based camcorders. Underscoring this technology is MediaWorks' investment in a unique, adaptable and programmable platform design with ASIC-like power, die size efficiency, and full programmability that, in total, ensures a fast time-to-market for ODMs and OEMs.

¶ Target Market Segments

¶ The MW301 is the first in a family of high performance digital video semiconductor system solutions to be offered by MediaWorks. With a mission of enabling the transition to digital video capture products for consumer applications, the company will also target segments including digital still cameras, digital video surveillance and the digital portable video recorder market.

¶ High Integration & Performance

¶ MediaWorks offers a true SoC with a proprietary platform-based architecture -- a complete system incorporating a high level of integration and performance. With the incorporation of MediaWorks' proprietary Application Specific Media Processor (ASMP(TM)) technology, the MW301 interfaces directly to the CCD and CMOS sensors and directly drives a large array of storage devices including flash memory, hard drives, TFT displays (up to VGA size) and communications. Due to this high level of integration and resulting performance, the customer benefits through a significant reduction in the manufacturer's total bill of material (BOM) and shortening development time.

¶ Programmability

¶ MediaWorks' technology is highly programmable, offering efficient die size and power consumption as well as an environment that empowers ODMs with leading developer tools (such as easily-programmable true C compilers) enabling in house development. ¶ The complete programmability of the MW301 shortens the typical design cycle for manufacturers and allows ODMs and OEMs to support future standards and algorithms through simple firmware upgrades. ¶"We've designed our SoC so it can easily meet the compression standards of today and tomorrow in this fast evolving market of consumer digital video," said Dennis Cocco, co-founder, president and CEO of MediaWorks. "Because MediaWorks' technology is easily adaptable, OEMs and ODMs will benefit by being able to incorporate newly-developed standards, thus ensuring their product(s) are on the cutting edge despite the uncertainty of forthcoming standards."

¶ Heterogeneous Processors -- Power & Size Efficiency

¶ The MW301 is powered by five custom, fully programmable parallel processors optimized for image processing running at 300 megahertz (MHz). This provides a level of performance not previously seen in digital still or video cameras. This compute power allows high quality still and 30 frames per second (fps) DVD resolution (720 x 480) video capture, processing and compression utilizing ISO standard MPEG4 (fully compatible with QuickTime) with concurrent stereo advanced audio coding (AAC) compression. The MW301 allows hours of DVD-quality video and CD-quality audio to be stored on widely available flash memory cards -- a fraction of the physical size of today's smallest existing DV cassette tapes. ¶ ODMs do not need to ship a software driver because the MW301 MPEG4 supports ISO compliant MPEG4 players, reducing the support and compatibility issues associated with a custom software driver. ¶ The MediaWorks MW301 allows manufacturers to build high quality digital camcorders in new compact form factors using small memory cards. This allows users to completely abandon existing bulky, expensive tape-based camcorders. ¶"MediaWorks' SoC will be the highest integrated SoC for solid state camcorders," said Eric Collins, co-founder, senior vice president and chief technology officer of MediaWorks. "Combining our technology with our methodology that calls for largely complete operating firmware at the time the chip is taped out, enables the timeframe from design start to the (consumer product) mass production to be dramatically reduced."

¶ Internal Peripherals & Interfaces

¶ To lower the total cost of products based on the MW301, MediaWorks has included a large number of internal peripherals and interfaces such as the following: -0- *T

-- High-speed USB 2.0 -- NTSC/PAL encoder and -- TFT display

triple DAC interface up to

VGA support

-- CCD/CMOS sensor -- Multiple I2C -- S/PDIF and I2S

interface interface audio interface

-- Motor control -- IDE hard drive -- 30 programmable

for lens interface GPIOs

-- CF, SD, MMC -- Multiple UARTs

removable flash

memory interfaces *T

¶ Supported Standards

¶ The audio standards that the MW301 supports includes AAC, MP3, and Windows Media Audio (WMA). The supported video standards include H.264, MPEG4, and Windows Media Video (WMV). The still standards that are supported include JPG and JPEG2000. The standards supported with firmware are either available for first shipments or during the second half of 2004.

¶ Customer Support Commitment

¶ MediaWorks is committed to supporting its customers with an unequaled level of customer service. MediaWorks distinguishes itself by providing the chip as well as production-worthy operating software, tools, turnkey reference designs and support to get to market quickly. In addition to a software developer tool kit and compilers all running on an industry standard real-time operating system, MediaWorks includes a user interface builder and a full set of production and calibration tools. ¶ Because customers will have varying needs for specific products, MediaWorks does accommodate special requests that include development of specialized ASIC designs and software.

¶ Pricing & Availability

¶ The MW301 device is scheduled to be available in sample quantities in the second quarter and will begin volume production in the third quarter of 2004. It will be in a 384 pin, 19 mm2 ball grid array (BGA) package, and priced at $20 per unit (including production worthy software) in OEM quantities.

¶ MediaWorks' Leadership

¶ The MediaWorks team has executed in excess of 100 ASIC designs, ten camera designs (that offer high quality, power and speed), has knowledge of both analog and digital technologies and a significant number of the team holds PhDs. ¶ The executives who manage the MediaWorks team all have successful records of developing and leading cutting-edge companies that have been on the forefront of innovation. As Founder, President and CEO, Dennis Cocco successfully managed Micronix Integrated Systems. During his tenure, the company created over 250 ICs and became a leading mixed-signal ASIC provider. MediaWorks' Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Eric Collins, founded and led Motorola Labs' DigitalDNA Systems Architecture Laboratory. In this position he developed advanced SoC architecture ICs among numerous other profitable silicon products. Notably, he led the creation of Motorola's MPEG4 encoder IC and CMOS sensor IC chipset that served as the basis for the first Motorola 3G cellular video phone.

¶ About MediaWorks

¶ MediaWorks is a fabless semiconductor company focused on driving the transition to digital video. The company's first product -- a media-centric SoC -- is targeted at the convergence of digital still cameras and camcorders, lowering the cost and time-to-market for its customers while providing best-in-class image quality. The company targets ODMs and OEMs for solid state digital video camcorders, digital video surveillance and the digital portable and recorder/player market. MediaWorks' highly integrated SoC technology enables high quality video with MPEG4 compression at DVD resolution-quality, and high quality digital still images with best-in-class performance and a lower end user price point. ¶ Underscoring this technology is an unparalleled customer service model. MediaWorks offers a partnership approach enabling collaboration on all efforts from design and BOM budget to timeframe requirements that include supplying ODMs and OEMs with complete turnkey reference designs. MediaWorks is located in Irvine, Calif., and can be accessed via the Web at www.mediaworks-isi.com.

More News in this Category