原创 SoCs Are Answering Demand for Converged Portable Devices

SoCs Are Answering Demand for Converged Portable Devices
By Gene Frantz

TI Principal Fellow and Business Development Manager, DSP

In my last blog, I wrote about the trend for application designers to create new products on existing SoC platforms like TI’s DaVinci technology. While this seems to turn the supply/demand paradigm on its head, the opposite is true. Let me give you a couple examples.

The demand for multifunctional portable equipment featuring convergent technologies is driving several markets. Cellular telephones already incorporate personal-digital-assistant (PDA) features, global-positioning-system (GPS) functions, and take still photos and video clips. Soon, still-photo quality will improve exponentially and there will be an even bigger leap in video quality. Convergence will shift into high gear as the new models incorporate TV features, Wireless LAN (WLAN) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Similarly, digital still cameras (DSCs) will see improvements in both still-photo and video quality, as well as the addition of in-camera editing and WLAN. Digital cameras of tomorrow will feature exceptional image quality, vast improvements in current core capabilities and new advanced features such as red-eye removal as the picture is being snapped, high-quality image and video stabilization, print from video, and advanced in-camera editing. High definition will also be a factor in this market as consumers will have the ability to capture video in HD and view it, and any of their images, on HDTVs.

All of this is made possible through advances in Digital Signal Processing technology that enables an amazing amount of signal processing in one small package, as well as the advent of single-chip integration, otherwise known as SoC. By integrating systems into a minimal set of discrete chips, we have seen a great increase in performance with a decrease in power consumption.

In this way, SoCs are answering demand without addressing the specific needs of a unique market. It was not too long ago that the average Digital Still Camera rapidly exhausted a set of batteries. Discrete system-on-chip (SoC) integration has changed that equation. (As an aside, I use the term Discrete SoC to indicate the idea of creating chipsets with an SoC mentality). Video camera designers have leveraged the new capabilities and integrated features to increase the resolution and functionality of their end products and keep the buying frenzy going in that market.

Yes, there are still many issues facing the trend toward convergence in portable devices and its dependence on SoC technology. Not the least is the question of how much convergence consumers actually want. We will dive into these topics in subsequent blogs.