Texas Instruments had a relatively quiet 3GSM, taking its usual press conference merely to say that yes everything is on track and remind us of the strong video elements to its roadmap that it first orchestrated last year with the introduction of the OMAP 3 cellular handset architecture.
Last year OMAP 3 was promised, this year it is in samples, it will be in volume later this year and volume devices should be on show at the next 3GSM show in early 2008.
But the user case for TI based phones shows just how fast the world of video is moving, and the combination of high definition video, shown through TI Digital Light Processor projectors, and driven by OMAP 3 devices, means that by next year customers will be able to take HDTV on the road with them. That raises an interesting challenge for both Placeshifting and mobile TV, which both just about manage to offer quality video in Quarter VGA and would be potentially swept away by mobile HDTV. The OMAP 3 cellular devices this week were shown storing and delivering 720p High Def video, either through an attached TV set or via the lightweight projectors, which weigh 1 pound and can deliver a quality 50 inch image on a hotel wall.
It was exactly a year ago that Texas Instruments, tore up the roadmap for cellular video capability, adding High Definition video and super dense camera function into its new OMAP 3 architecture. But then it was just a plan, now it’s a chip.
The OMAP 3 four processor core can drive a 12 megapixel camera, which will take mobile picture taking to a level beyond existing handheld cameras, effectively making them obsolete by the time this component finds its way into handsets between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2008.
OMAP 3 is built in 65 nanometer geometry, has native H.264 codec processing, a separate graphics core, a Texas DSP and the ARM Coretex A8. The addition of a Texas digital baseband chip makes four cores on the chip. The graphics core is said to have the power of PlayStation version 1 and beyond, for rendering 3D graphics for games.
But more importantly for those mapping the video landscape, the device can store and drive the equivalent of 720p progressive scan High Definition TV from the processor, while keeping something back for phone calls, game play and web browsing. And at IBC 6 months ago TI showed devices which were effectively Digital Video Recorders on the handset, ready to store this kind of video on device.
Gradually as the OMAP 3 line of processors is rolled out, Texas will slide down to 45 nanometer chips, driving power consumption even further down, but the claim now is that it is already 3 times more powerful than OMAP 2, offers 4 times the video performance and twice the camera performance, but uses 30% less power.
So where exactly is the device when it comes to game play? That’s something else that TI answered at the show, integrating Open GL into its OMAP 3430 chip, the long standing video graphics standard that came originally from Silicon Graphics and which revolutionized the gaming industry.
TI always has to deal in futures, and here it is looking forward to the day when PlayStation 2 class games can be played on a handheld. As such it is chasing the Sony PSP, in that phones built with OMAP 3 chips will be roughly in line with PlayStation Portable power.
But if building the chips which will support devices of the future with top of the range video and gaming, is not enough, TI wants to do much the same at the cheap end of the cellular market.
It also introduced a single chip version of its LoCosto Ultra Low Cost single chip platform offering a 25% cut in bill of materials, and a dramatic increase in battery life, for those under $50 devices that the un-developed parts of the world are going to need. The next 1 billion handsets in the world have been characterized as those sold in poorer countries and TI realizes that this device might be the single piece of consumer electronics equipment that a 3rd world inhabitant may ever own. In which case it has to do quite a lot.
It needs to play music, take pictures, store video, offer some form of gaming, show video and of course be a handset.
The LoCosto TCS2305 and TCS2315 are both cut in 65 nanometer geometry, and merges the jobs of the RF transceiver and analog codec with the digital baseband chip, for space reduction. It will also offer full color display, MP3 playback, FM stereo, USB charging and support for a camera.
TI has said that this range will drive handset costs for low end value phone devices down from the $40 they are approaching today to $15 by 2008, and says it already has 15 LoCosto customers, and has already shipped 10 million units of its previous generation LoCosto devices.