MediaQ MQ2100 targets handset video/graphics

By Bernard Cole
iApplianceWeb
(03/27/03, 05:58:25 PM EDT)

Santa Clara, Ca. -- MediaQ Corp. has released to developers its MQ2100 Multimedia Platform Controller for use in digital cameras and multimedia handsets and mobile iAs.

The MQ2100 is designed as a 2D graphics acceleration engine designed to increase LCD screen resolution up to 320x240 pixels. The MQ2100 also increases embedded memory size for higherscreen resolutions, more vivid colors, and JPEG compression. The 64-bit graphics engine is also available with double buffering for 176x220 pixel resolution.

In addition to its primary use in mobile devices incorporating camera functionality, the MQ2100's new hardware JPEG encoder allows users to capture and compress images and then store or send them using picture messaging services. The controller's video processing engine is coupled with a JPEG encoder capable of encoding still images with resolutions up to VGA.

The JPEG encoder implements all computationally intensive tasks such as DCT encoding, RLE, and Huffman encoding in hardware. This VGA-to-JPEG capability enables handset users to take advantage of applications that support high-quality image transmission over a wireless network, a key feature driving the camera-enabled handset market.

In addition, the device is designed to operate within the low-power parameters of handsets. Fabricated using advanced low-leakage CMOS process technology, the MQ2100 gates off the clocks of inactive modules and gates off the SRAM clock when no accesses are made. Clocks to inactive pipeline stages in active modules are also gated off. As a result, it consumes less than 5mW during normal operation.

Provided with the devices is the MQ-OSIK development kit to speed the integration of hardware acceleration functions into a variety of OEM operating systems. The MQ-OSIK contains four sets of well-defined functions, including 2D graphics acceleration, initialization, JPEG, and video functions, and allows OEMs to initialize hardware.

The controller's LCD interface module connects with RGB- or CPU-style LCD drivers, enabling it to drive a wide variety of TFT and STN LCD panels. It also supports leading LCD technology standards such as NEC's M-CMADs, Sharp's ULC, and LTPS. For camera module support, MQ2100's CCIR656-compliant Video Input Port directly takes images from CCD/CMOS VGA or CIF camera modules for display and capture.

For more information, go to http://www.mediaq.com.

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