Irvine, California–In response to the increasing demand for streaming media in wireless applications, Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. (TAEC), with its parent company Toshiba Corp., has announced the availability of a single-chip, low-power MPEG-4 encoding and decoding (CODEC) solution.

This new chip, designated TC35273XB, integrates an MPEG-4 CODEC with 12-megabits of embedded DRAM to deliver a low-power, end-to-end solution with encoding, transmission, and decoding functionality that fully supports the MPEG-4 industry standard.

“As the demand for wireless media grows, many companies are beginning to develop MPEG-4 solutions,” says Andrew Burt, director, TAEC wireless market development. “Toshiba’s solution stands out because our leadership in embedded DRAM allows us to offer significantly lower power dissipation–a critical feature in the wireless communications arena. Our new MPEG-4 CODEC opens the doors for designers to create advanced wireless communication products such as mobile interactive multimedia devices, digital television, or remote security and surveillance. Toshiba is enabling the industry to envision and create new and exciting ways to deliver two-way, rich media content anytime, anywhere.”

The TC35273XB performs 15 frames per second into a QCIF (176 x 144 pixels) video display, along with an audio CODEC that can support multiple audio CODECs including Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR) speech CODEC at a clock frequency of 70-megahertz (MHz). Three signal processing units, an MPEG-4 video CODEC, an audio CODEC/decoder, and a multiplex/demultiplex unit are integrated on the single-chip. The video core consists of a 16-bit RISC processor and dedicated hardware accelerators that allow programmability while delivering high performance and low-power dissipation. The firmware program for the RISC processor is downloaded into the embedded DRAM before beginning any operation. Additional applications, such as H.263, are performed by using the appropriate firmware. Features also include a general host interface in order to support various host processors, as well as a special-designed gating input/output (I/O) that allows power supply to be cut-off to the internal circuits while keeping the I/O activated.

Sample pricing for the TC35273XB MPEG-4 encoder and decoder is $55. Samples will be released in second quarter of 2001, with mass production slated for third quarter of 2001.