A 342mW mobile application processor with full-HD multi-standard video codec

Today's cellular phones must support full high-definition (full-HD) video in multiple video formats, such as H.264 and MPEG-2/-4, with low power consumption. Full-HD video processing requires six times the data bandwidth and is more computationally intensive than conventional standard-definition (SD) video. The trade-off between flexibility, performance and power consumption is a key focus of video-codec design. Homogeneous multi-core processors are power-consuming and achieving high-throughput is difficult [1]. While dedicated circuits can minimize power consumption, the dedicated decoders and encoders in previous reports [2, 3] have difficulty performing all of the media processing that is indispensable for a modern cellular phone [4]. In this paper, we have integrated a mobile application processor featuring a two-stage-processing video codec, tile-based address-translation circuits, and several audio/visual intellectual property (IP) modules.

[1]  K. Iwata,et al.  A 256mW full-HD H.264 high-profile CODEC featuring dual macroblock-pipeline architecture in 65nm CMOS , 2008, 2008 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits.

[2]  Tian-Sheuan Chang,et al.  A 242mW, 10mm2 1080p H.264/AVC high profile encoder chip , 2008, 2008 45th ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference.

[3]  Jiun-In Guo,et al.  A 252kgate/71mW Multi-Standard Multi-Channel Video Decoder for High Definition Video Applications , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers.

[4]  Koji Ohno,et al.  A 65nm Single-Chip Application and Dual-Mode Baseband Processor with Partial Clock Activation and IP-MMU , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers.

[5]  Chen Kong Teh,et al.  A 9.7mW AAC-Decoding, 620mW H.264 720p 60fps Decoding, 8-Core Media Processor with Embedded Forward-Body-Biasing and Power-Gating Circuit in 65nm CMOS Technology , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - Digest of Technical Papers.