BARCELONA - Advanced Micro Devices has announced three new discrete media chips to respond to growing demand for advanced multimedia features in mobile phones.
The AMD Imageon 2298, 2294, and 2192 processors, unveiled Monday at the 3GSM World Congress here, are designed with a number of media-rich features, including processing of images up to 12 megapixels, image stabilization and multichannel audio playback.
AMD is licensing the technology to other chip manufacturers, including STMicroelectronics, according to AMD marketing director Andy Thompson.
Separately, AMD also launched its new Geode chip, an embedded processor
Cleaner Video, Audio
The Imagon media processor is separate from a phone's core processor, enabling manufacturers to introduce new multimedia functions more quickly, according to Thompson. The separate architecture also helps reduce power consumption for longer device battery life.
The new media chips will support full DVD resolutions or "five times what was available in earlier generations," said AMD product manager Philippe Decotignie. "Consumers can turn their phones into camcoders and mobile TVs with a very high, very fast resolution," he said.
In addition, the chips will support simultaneous audio and video encoding and decoding, acoustic echo cancellation and video stabilization. Their TV output function allows viewing of videos and photos on any TV or projector.
Several handset manufacturers are currently testing the new media chips.
AMD has supplied earlier-generation media chips to a number of mobile phone makers, including Motorola and Samsung Electronics.
Geode Updated
AMD is sending manufacturers samples of its new 1.5-watt Geode LX900 embedded processor, a more powerful version of its 0.9-watt predecessor, the LX800. By holding its power below 5 watts, the Geode chip needs no fan or heat sink, allowing designers to create small-sized designs for kiosks and cash registers, as well as larger platforms like set-top boxes, numeric keypads, and entertainment platforms.
The Geode is also expected to power the $100 laptop for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's One Laptop Per Child project, and is already specified in thin-client PCs from ClearCube Technology, Hewlett-Packard, and Wyse Technology.
AMD has two thrusts in its embedded computing business, said Jeff Chu, division manager of AMD's embedded solution team. The company will target very low-wattage platforms like single board computers with sub-five watt chips like the Geode, and will extend its work on commercial Athlon, Opteron, Sempron, and Turion chips for new applications such as telecommunications and commercial storage.
Many embedded product designers pass up x86-style processors from AMD and Intel in favor of Arm, MIPS, or PowerPC chips. Now AMD hopes to change their minds by expanding its longevity program to include nearly 30 chips. The company pledges to keep them in production for at least five years to support long-lived products like 3G telephony base stations.
Ben Ames of the IDG News Service contributed to this report.
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