APRIL 30--ChipWrights Inc. (San Jose, CA; www.chipwrights.com) has introduced the CW4011 device--the first member of its new visual signal processor (ViSP) family. This highly scalable, embedded processor family represents a new approach to image and video processing. It is characterized by a patented microprocessor core comprising a RISC processor with a highly integrated, scalable array of DSP vector processing units.
This family of code-compatible processors is optimized for highly efficient, low-transistor-count implementations that will support applications ranging from very cost-sensitive ones (such as Web-, cell phone-, and PDA-based cameras, digital still cameras, and video cameras) to very high-performance ones(such as video transcoders, photo kiosks, and digital color copiers).
The first member of this family, the CW4011 ViSP, is a fully C programmable system-on-a-chip device that offers real-time video, main level, main profile MPEG2 encoding at cost and power levels suitable to battery-operated, portable digital-image-capture devices. It offers designers a powerful, single programming target, accelerating development of differentiated, next-generation portable digital imaging and video devices at a lower overall system cost.
The CW4011's powerful CWv8 processor core includes a vector array of fully pipelined DSP units that support 32 multiply accumulates per cycle. At more than 4000 MIPS, it is twice as fast as similar solutions based on general-purpose DSP architectures. And at 0.10 mW/MIPS, it supports the low-power requirements for the next generation of battery-powered devices.
The CW4011 ViSP is available with a full software-development kit that includes an optimizing C compiler, a cycle accurate software simulator, a visual (JTAG) debugger and assembler, and a performance profiler--all based on the popular Metrowerks CodeWarrior Integrated Development Environment. The development software supports Microsoft Windows and Linux-based platforms.
The CW4011 ViSP supports digital still camera standards and supports a high-quality, complete DSC pipeline for CMOS and CCD sensors, including JPEG compression, running at 12 Mpixels/s. This enables continuous, unlimited burst shooting in 3-Mpixel digital cameras at more than 4 frames/s, with only 16 Mbyte SDRAM, or capture of full motion, 30 frames/second, JPEG images at VGA resolution. In stand-alone operation, the CW4011 ViSP supports JPEG compression at more than 20 Mpixels/s.
