Tech Watch: The Future in The Palm of Our Hand

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Jon Peddies
Jon Peddie Research

3GSM
FEBRUARY 28, 2005 Volume 5, Number 4
TECH WATCH
IN EVERY ISSUE:
IN THIS ISSUE
The future in the palm of our hand

Mobile companies demonstrate coming technology at 3GSM
By Kathleen Maher and Dr. Jon Peddie
hile Cannes is known as the glamorous site for the International Film Festival, the city makes more money from the 35,000 people who come to town for the 3GSM trade show. Or at least thats what we were told. We know for a fact that not only were all the hotels booked months ago but also many of the apartments and condominiums. In fact, the show has grown so much over the past few years that the GSM Association (GSMA) has decided to move it to Barcelona. Since 3GSM shows are often characterized by horrible weather and worse traffic, attendees were thrilled to be making plans for Spain rather than the gorgeous Cte dAzure. No doubt many of the locals will be happy to have their town back though, as we say, the merchants we talked to were singing the blues. This year, the weather was crisp, clear, and gorgeous and 3G is finally getting into the hands of a sizeable number of customersmost of them living in Asia and Europe. The outlook for the U.S., however, is very hopeful, and the GSM Association said they expect to see the U.S. come into its own as a market in 2005. And when it does, the U.S, land of opportunity and an entrepreneur on every block, will make up for lost time. Over 2004, says the GSMA, 3GSM has grown over 500%, and over 20 million people now take advantage of 3G services.
3GSM show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Media processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 TV at 3GSM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Imagers & codecs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Software & games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Mobile trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 SET-TOP BOXES: Early Q404 results . . . .1 How important is industrial design in DVD competition? . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Quantum3D Expedition VR with a gun . .32 NEWSWATCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 ITS ALL ABOUT THE PIXEL . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
by Jon Peddie
As the industry transitions to new technology it has an opportunity to fix some of the problems that have plagued the mobile industry since its birth. At 3GSM it seems that those changes are well under way with standards being developed for interoperability for messages, multimedia, and data exchange. The GSMA announced additions to its billing approaches that will support data and MMS roaming across GPRS, EDGE, and 3GSM. Integrated Messaging builds on existing messaging services and interoperability to create an integrated user experience for SMS, See 3GSM, page 3
HELLO, MA? I GOT A JOB. Texas Instruments
pulls out all the stops: Cute Girls, Red Wigs, and Segway Scooters. (Photo: Jon Peddie Research)
SET-TOP BOXES Early Q404 results show strong DSTB growth

By Christine Arrington
reliminary digital set-top box shipment results for the fourth quarter of 2004 indicate that unit growth may be returning to the higher levels seen earlier in the life cycle of the digital market. Pending final numbers from some of the top vendors, we believe that growth from Q304 to Q404 could hit 10.6% with unit shipments growing from 11.22 to 12.41 million. There were a lot of factors that played into this growth rate including a continuing ramp of HD-, DVR-, and combination HD-DVRenabled boxes flowing into both the satellite and cable industry in the U.S. in particular. However, much of the growth seems
FAST FACTS
Attendance at 3GSM increased 25% to 35,000 attendees. The mobile phone industry serves over 1.25 billion people across 200 countries, according to Bill Gajda, chief marketing officer at the GSM Association. By the end of 2004, 60 operators in 30 countries offer 3GSM services.
to be coming from the satellite side of the pay television business. We have estimated a conservative growth rate for the combined businesses of Thomson/RCA and Hughes Network Systems. Even so, that estimate puts Thomson/RCA at nearly 3.8 million units shipped for the quarter compared to 3.6 million last quarter. Our expectation that the company will report unit shipment growth rather than a decline on March 3 is based on historical demand from customers of both Thomson and HNS in the fourth quarter of prior years. Both vendors have historically seen increased demand See SET-TOP BOXES, p. 10
THE BUSINESS OF GRAPHICS AND MULTIMEDIA
JON PEDDIES TECH WATCH
EDITORIAL
By Kathleen Maher
We can always hope, cant we?

ts a tired canard that the mobile phone market is going to develop just like the PC market. It is more useful to say the phone market is developing like people had hoped the PC market would develop. You can look at a lot of trends that never really took off on the PC and people are placing great hope that they will take off in the mobile phone marketvideo conferencing has mutated into video sharing and its the next big thing. Of course, the cynics in the crowd might also say that these things are no more likely to take off on the phone than they did on the PC. Other great hopes include mass gaming, the everything device, and new hope for small fabless startups.
aspect of science fiction should best be left in the realm of fiction.) And maybe a lot of the other features of the personal communicator will fail to materialize as well. It should be obvious by now that there is no one-size-fitsall for these complex devices we depend on. We learned the lessons in computerslooks like well have to relearn it in handhelds.
Phones do everything
By now almost all of us have cameras in our phones. Not many of us use them. We have ringtones, and as any quiet evening in the theater will tell you, many of us have been very creative in our choices, but most adult people do not spend a great deal of time fussing with ringtonesone or two experiences is enough to convince people with jobs that Beethovens Ode to Joy will suffice, forever. Games? Do you even know what games are on your phone? Those of you who doIll get to you later. The vast majority of phones out there are tiny, incredibly functional, and interface-retarded. Then there are the advanced-feature phones that can handle just about the same tasks as a computer. Admittedly, there is a need for these things. Those of you who are passionate about games are going to require nothing less than a phone with a large screen, a powerful processor or two, and a big bank account. There really arent that many of you, you know. Motorola has scored an important coup with its affordable phone. In an attempt to answer the phone industrys callfind us the next 1 billion subscribersMotorola has designed the C114, which can be sold for less than $40. The goal is to develop phones for $30 and enable all people to communicate. Watch outthey are going to have quite a bit to say. We were struck at 3GSM by the idea that there are people arguing about the quality of 3D games on their phone, the need for 5-Mpixel cameras, and how many Mp3 songs it takes to find happiness, and at the same time there are many people in this world who have never made a phone call in their lives. There is still a revolution to come from telephone technology and it will be every bit as dramatic and life changing as the Internet revolution. Ironically,
VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 FEBRUARY 28, 2005
Videos everywhere
Certainly, the biggest buzz at 3GSM this year was around video in all forms. Video for messaging, video for video conferencing, video for TV. The Internet is kind of like this generations space programit has inspired so much innovation that spills over into other industries. For example, MPEG-4, an enabler of movies and video over the web, is at the heart of so many technologies enabling video on mobile phones. But there is still a lot of work to be done to figure out how to shoehorn these technologies into the small format of a handheld. The debates between the two major contenders for broadcast video to handhelds in the West are DVB-H and DMB. Right now their arguments boil down to can-too, can-not statements, and in the meantime companies are placing bets. DiBcom in France is offering a chip based on DVB-H, the frontrunner in Europe. Imagination Technologies and Texas Instruments ally Frontier Silicon is betting on DVB and is readying a product for the Korean market. DVB has pretty good running room in England as well, thanks to the penetration of DAB. But just how much can we expect these handhelds to do? I guess the question boils down to are we going to have these personal communicators that rival Star Trek communicators with video phone features. (We still have to get that beam-me-up thing worked out, and most of us are thinking that, with increasing government power in many countries, maybe that whole beam-me-out-of-here
though, the killer app is simply going to be the ability to pick up the phone and call for help, alert a friend, complain to the authorities, and tell family members they are loved and missed. The last two technological revolutions, the PC and the Internet, have often isolated people into their own affinity groups. They have created a generation of children who shuttle from TV to computer and never leave the house. Let us hope that with the means to communicate easier and in person, life will become more human for those of us in developed countries and less inhuman for those just getting the power to talk back. And congratulations to VIA and AMD. The two companies are distinct in having made the concept of co-opetition work. The two companies threw themselves a gala last week to celebrate the sale of 100 million AMD chipsets.
Editor-in-Chief Kathleen@jonpeddie.com Managing Editor Marilyn@jonpeddie.com Associate Editor Robert@jonpeddie.com Jon Peddie Research President Jon@jonpeddie.com Senior Analysts
Kathleen Maher
Marilyn Novell
Robert Dow
Jon Peddie
Leroy Becker, Henry Choy, Brad deGraf, Lisa Epstein Peter Forman, Alex Herrera, Jake Richter
Editorial Assistant Shawnee@jonpeddie.com
Jon Peddies Tech Watch (ISSN 1538-9359; online version ISSN 1538-9367) is published bi-weekly by Jon Peddie Research. For subscription information contact JPR at 4 St. Gabrielle Ct.; Tiburon, CA 94920; 415/435-9368; or email subscriptioninfo@jonpeddie.com. All rights reserved. Copyright 2005 by Jon Peddie Research. No part of this document may be used or reproduced by any party, government or person, in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, without prior written permission of Jon Peddie Research. The material in this report is not guaranteed as to its accuracy. It represents our interpretation of information generally available to the public and does not contain any information given to us in confidence by our clients. This report contains a review of various products. It is not an endorsement or attempt to sell any products. Under the rules of the Fair Use Doctrine, JPR assumes no responsibility for the correct or incorrect usage of any trademarks or service marks.
Shawnee Blackwood
3GSM
3GSM Continued from page 1
MMS, and mobile email. In addition, the GSMA has introduced an extension to GCF certification that will enable companies to field interoperable phones faster and with more assurance of actual interoperability.
TI owns the world

Well, at least thats the impression we came away with after attending their press conference at 3GSM. Its hard to find something in which the company does not excel or have major market share, and they have an interesting and aggressive roadmap to carry them
The low-cost handset

When it comes to emerging nations, however, there are different issues that are slowing the penetration of 3G. While mobile phones have been readily accepted and have become an option where fixed lines have not gone in or where people wait for years to get a phone, 3G phones have been too expensive, even when the service is available. The GSMA estimates that although 85% of the worlds population is covered by 3G, only 25% can be seen as likely customers. The issue is cost. So, two and half years ago, GSMA along with operators AIS Telecom, Bharti Televentures, Globe Telecom, Maxis Mobile, Orascom, SingTel Mobile, Smart Communications Telenor Mobile, and Turkcell, issued a challenge to phone manufacturers asking them to develop a low-cost handset. The ultimate goal is a sub-$30 handset, and out of a field of 18 handset vendors, Motorola won with a design available for less than $40. The phone is actually more of a platform than a hard design, and it will be available in several different configurations to suit its targeted user base. Its a deal worth winning. The initial unit volume for the phone is 6 million handsets representing 1% of the total annual global handset market. The GSMA says they believe that eventually the low-cost phone can add 100 million new connections a year. Motorolas phone is the C114 and it is designed for durability and long talk time. Motorola said that this phone of the future could not be built by simply repurposing designs from older phones; rather it had to be designed from the ground up for its intended users. The end goal, says both Motorola and GSMA, is more than selling millions of phones, its about connecting more than 4 billion people who never made a phone call in their lives. The next move is getting connected, of course, and the GSMA is calling on world governments and operators to cooperate to offer low-cost services.
FAST FACTS
There are 200 million GSM subscribers. There are 1.7 billion wireless users. There are 43.24 million i-Mode subscribers worldwide (as of January 31, 2005).
through the rest of this decade. Unlike Samsung, or Siemens, TI is free to supply parts to any ODM or OEM handset manufacturer. Even competitor Freescale, a recent spin-off from Motorola, is a quasi-captive. The companys numbers are as impressive as the industrys. Rich Templeton, TIs president and CEO, pointed out that in the early nineties GSM was considered a dark horse at best and by 1995 had just 5 million users; then it exploded, and it is now estimated that there are about 1.5 billion users worldwide. Templeton fully expects 3G to follow that curve and suggests that G is today where GSM was 10 years ago. It is entirely possible, said Temple-
ton, that by 2015, more than 1 billion people will be using 3G mobile phones or even more advanced handsets. We see a world where 3G wireless eventually will be available everywhere, to everyonefrom the worlds major financial centers to the farthest reaches of developing nations. Big visions for a big guy at a big company, the kind of thing we come to conferences like this to hear. He then showed an interesting chart of 3G rollout to back up his premise and vision (see Figure 1, below). Templeton thinks 3G W/UMTS represents a real opportunity to establish a true universal mobile phone standard that will allow us to carry our phones anywhere in the world. He thinks that if the world could come together on that the potential for 3G phones is over a billion in seven years and could grow to as much as 4 billion. With that as the canvas for TIs vision, he then turned over the stage to TIs senior vice president for the Worldwide Wireless Terminals Business Unit, Gilles Delfassy, who showed TIs roadmap for future chips for handsets (summarized in Figure 2, next page). As the roadmap shows, the next generation of TI chips will be designated OMAP-Vox, and evolve toward greater integration by embedding the model and radio functions into the chip everything except the power amp. TI will integrate the mode functions using their digital RF (DRP) processing.
FIGURE 1. Worldwide deployment of high-bandwidth networks.
(Source: TI)
TI OMAP-Vox Products3GSM
OMAP2420 Processor
Sampling
Easy Migration Across Standards and Market Segments

Future OMAP Processors
High-end Multimedia
OMAP Processors
Production
e Standalon essors Proc Application
Future OMAP-Vox 3G Solutions

OMAPV1030 EDGE New! Chipset
Sampling
Smartphone
SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE
GSM/GPRS Chipsets
Production
Feature Phone
Integrated Modem & ns Applicatio
r tSmane pho OMAP-Vox Feature Solutions Phone Val Phoue ne
Future OMAP-Vox 3G Solutions
GSM/GPRS Value Chipsets

Production
Single-chip Cell Phone GSM/GPRS

CostOptimized
Sampling
ology echn DRP T
Future OMAP-Vox 3G Single-chip Cell Phone
Value Phone
SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE
FIGURE 2. TIs mobile chip roadmap.
(Source: TI)
The OMAP-Vox
One of TIs big messages was investment protection for handset manufacturers and operators. The architecture of the OMAP family will evolve so that software and utilities developed today will run on tomorrows chips. Templeton showed the chart in Figure 3 (below) to drive home the message and show how TI is protecting its customers. TIs new OMAP-Vox was a major part of TIs press conference, and with it, TI has reached a major milestone in integration. The Vox chip includes the analog as well as digital components
of handset design including RF. The first chip in TIs Vox product line is the OMAPVT1030 and it includes EDGE support, allowing easy migration to UMTS thanks to TIs vaunted reusable software strategy. This new chip will enable lo- cost products as it combines power management, audio codecs, and drivers. As the diagram below indicates, TI is also throwing in GSM/GPRS/ EDGE protocol software and integrated multimedia codecs and functions and development tools. According to Delfassy, handset designs will remain a two-chip affair with the Vox integrating all functions except RF and power amp. However, Delfassy also predicted
completely integrated designs within a couple of years. The chip is shipping in sample quantities now and will be available in volume quantities in the third quarter of 2005. It has been built using TIs 90-nanometer process, evolving to 45-nanometer as soon as the fab is ready. TI says it sees a clear path through 45-nanometer to 32-nanometer and beyond and that new technologies and concepts will be needed; however, that point in time is, in TIs view, at least a decade away. We asked Delfassy; Alain Mutricy, general manager for Cellular Systems; and Anver Goren, director of OMAP Products and Systems Marketing, about their plans for 3D integration, wondering if in the concept of chipset, as shown in the roadmap, the company would come out with a co-processor along the lines of what Intel did (i.e., 2700). Goren was emphatic and said that 3D hardware acceleration will remain an iterated functionality, and a chipset merely refers to the intermediate step prior of integrating the modem.
FAST FACTS
Nokia predicts there will be 70 million 3G WCDMA subscribers in 2005. In 2002, analysts announced that the number of mobile phones in use had surpassed fixed lines worldwide. Nokia says 15 million Java applications are downloaded every month.
The OMAP-Vox Platform

Get to Market Today with 2.5G
Qu ickly an d Easily Scale to 3G
e ar tw of S e us Re
Software Reuse for Rapid, Cost-Efficient Development

UMTS 3G
User Interface
Nokia makes deals; builds on market share

Nokia had so much to say the company had two press conferencesone for general corporate news and a Series 60 press conference as well. The companys major announcements included new phones, a music strategy, and an agreement with Microsoft to add Microsoft Exchange to its data services so that Nokias smartphone customers can synch data files in an office environment.
Video Conferencing Digital TV
New 3G Software
GSM/GPRS/EDGE
User Interface
Applications Software OMAP
Imaging Video Web Browsing Audio 2D/3D Graphics Gaming

RTOS / HLOS
are ftw So euse R

ar ftw So e eus eR
Imaging Video Web Browsing Audio 2D/3D Graphics Gaming

RTOS / HLOS UMTS Protocol Stack
New 3G Software
New 3G Software
Modem Software
GSM/GPRS/EDGE Protocol Stack
re Softwa Reuse
GSM/GPRS/EDGE Protocol Stack UMTS L1
Nokias data deals

So far, operators still make most of their money from voice services rather than data. The number that is usually bandied about is 80% with the other 20% coming from data including messaging, games, etc. Nokia says that operators are seeing increasing revenues
GSM/GPRS/EDGE L1
Software Reuse
GSM/GPRS/EDGE L1
FIGURE 3. TIs legacy software support and protection scheme.
(Source: TI)
3GSM
from data services and that the number is now closer to 26% worldwide, and the company says it is doing its part to make sure that that number keeps going up. Theres a bidding war going on for music downloads, and the announcements at 3GSM will no doubt add fuel to the fire. Motorola and Apple kicked off the music bandwagon with their announcement of iMusic-enabled phones. For now, Motorolas iTunesenabled phones occupy the high end of the phone market. Nokia intends to make music on phones a mainstream feature as quickly as possible. The company sees three classes of phones that handle music: music optimized devices, music smartphones, and mobile phones with music. At Cannes, Nokia introduced its mobile music platform, which is designed to make the addition of music services easy for operators. The company has teamed up with Loudeye for its large digital music archive and digital media infrastructure. For its part, Loudeye has teamed with Microsoft to take advantage of the Windows Media platform for music formats and also DRM. The deal extends to Windows XP PCs as well. Users will be able to use their PC as a server for their handsets and exchange content. The addition of millions of handset owners with the ability to download songs on a whim could help to bring down prices for individual songs well below the one-dollar level. Michael Nash, senior vice president for Time Warners Digital Strategy, made a video appearance to tell the audience that media on handsets will usher in a whole new entertainment culture. Nokia does not plan to stop with music either. Like just about everyone else at 3GSM, Nokia is very excited about the potential of video on handsets. We saw several video-sharing applications demonstrated, and, as far as we can tell, Nokia and TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) will be the first to actually roll out a service. TIM plans to roll out video sharing as part of its Turbo Call service. It is based on the 3GPP IP will enable operators to offer services independent of the network or handset. There was a ripple of surprise in Nokias huge press tent on the beach when the company announced an agreement with Microsoft to license Microsofts Corporations Exchange Server System for Nokias mobile devices for enterprise customers. Mary McDowell, Nokias senior vice president and general manager for Enterprise Solutions, announced that the deal will enable phones running on the Series 60 and Series 80 software platform to synch with office email. There are few friends of Microsoft among the European press, so almost immediately a journalist challenged McDowell, asking why Nokia would choose to support a proprietary standard like Microsofts Exchange. McDowell somewhat testily answered that this deal does not affect any of the other deals Nokia has in place for enterprise email including those with PalmSource or RIM but that the deal illustrates Nokias appreciation of de facto standards. Its true that Nokia has nothing to gain and more to lose by shunning Microsoft, but it was only a few years ago that Nokia was calling for the mobile phone world as a whole to resist the allure of Microsoft and support its own, more open, platforms including Series 60. Nokias announcements with Microsoft are a clear indication that the PC worlds and handset worlds are hopelessly intertwinedat least when it comes to enterprise applications. We would argue that almost everyone who works and uses e-mail in their work is an enterprise customer.
FAST FACTS
U.S. callers make 600 to 800 minutes in calls a month In the U.K. subscribers make 200 to 300 minutes of calls. In Germany the average user makes less than 100 minutes in calls a month.
multimedia protocol. The infrastructure has already been built by TIM, which has incorporated the Nokia IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core network infrastructure. TIMs system also takes advantage of OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) device settings management systems. Juha Putkiranta, senior vice president of Imaging at Nokia, says that TIMs implementation is an example of open technology at work. He says IP-based concepts like video sharing
CAFE LIFE HAS CHANGED IN FRANCE, but people still come together
over common interests. Renoirs Bal du Moulin de la Galette (above) and Le Caf des Geeks in Cannes (right).
Photo: Jon Peddie Research
3GSM
Series 60
Nokia announced a new edition of the Series 60 platform, Series 60 Platform 3rd Edition. Nokia says the new platform will create a broader market for smartphones. The new software will run on Symbian OS v9.0 and will be available to licensees in mid-2005. Nokia says the Series 60 Platform 3rd Edition adds enhanced multimedia and enterprise features and will continue to support multi-radio, scalable UI, and multi-resolution as well as a variety of application suites. New features include: Improved security Improvements to business features such as calendar, synchronization, and device management Music player and support for rich media content Expanded peripheral supporr to accommodate USB Nokia and its partners in the Series 60 are very excited about music, as we have already noted. The Series 60 3rd Edition will take advantage of OMA DRM, users can customize skins, and using the USB functionality music can be exchanged between PCs and handsets. Nokia is making an SDK for its new software based on CodeWarrior for Symbian OS available to developers immediately.
New phones NOKIA 6681features

a 1.3megapixel integrated camera with flash and slide, support for PictBridge for direct printing, web browsing via EDGE, a display supporting 262,144 colors, email and attachment support, a removable 64-MByte multimedia card, and support for digital music and push to talk. Games include the beloved Snake, Card Deck, and a new 3D snowboarding game. with support for alwayson email and attachments (, 3gpp, MP3, ppt, doc, xls, pdf), video sharing, twoway video, two integrated camerasa 1.3-megapixel camera with a 6x digital zoom and LED flash and an VGA camera with 2x digital zoom, HTML web browsing, and video streaming. sign that is high on style. It has a VGA camera phone with a self-portrait capability, Nokia express audio messaging, multimedia messaging, two color displays, an FM radio, and push to talk. It will ship in the second quarter of 2005.
NOKIA 6680a smartphone
NOKIA 6101a clamshell de-
We have no idea why anyone would want a two-camera phone.
FAST FACTS
Nokia has shipped 20 million Series 60based devices. In 2005, Nokia estimates that over 50 million Series 60 devices will ship.
Sony gets its ducks and devices in a row: Cli out, PSP in, and Sony Ericsson handles the phones
After a few false starts, Sonys Cli helped define what a PDA should be. It was one of the first to use an application processor to enhance the graphics and audio play, it had a camera, and it was just cool. With the announcement that Sony will pull out of the PDA market and cease production of the Cli, there is yet one more sign that the basic PDAs days are numbered. Shipments of PDAs have been dropping year after year, and in 2004 IDC reported that fewer than 10 million units shipped down from a high, we reckon, of around 16 million units in 2002. Sony had already backed off from international marketsretreating to Japan where it sold fewer than
Also, as part of its Series 60 announcements, Nokia announced an agreement with Macromedia. Nokia will integrate Macromedia Flash technology on Series 60. Nokia has also committed to supporting Flash on other platforms as well. The companies say the deal will enable Nokias more than 1.8 million developers registered with Forum Nokia to take advantage of Macromedias tools. Conversely, Macromedias 1 million registered Flash developers have just seen their target handheld base open up to include millions of Nokia phones.
500,000 units last year. The PDA started to fade with the introduction of the Treo and smartphones that combine PDA functions with a phone. Not coincidentally, Sony also has interests in the phone market through its joint venture with Ericsson. Would it surprise you to know that Sony Ericsson has several smartphone designs? Of course not. Sony sees no reason to compete against itself. Rather, Sony Ericsson announced their new Business Partner Program designed to foster the development of useful programs for business customers. At 3GSM, Sony Ericsson announced the first three companies in the Business Partner Program. They are Appforge, Intellisync, and JP Mobile. The three companies provide a good base for future development. Appforge offers development tools with support for mobile and wireless PDAs, smartphones, and industrial devices using a Microsoft C#, Visual Basic .net, and Visual Basic 6. Intellisync as you might surmise provides products that enable devices to sync with one another. And, JP Mobile adds security to email and PIM products. Sonys decision to pull out of the Cli and leave those duties to its Sony Ericsson venture clears the field for the company to concentrate on its PSP device, which is making its way into eager hands over the next few months. The product has already been launched in Japan and will arrive on U.S. shores in less than a month. There are rumors that Sony will follow up with a hard drive device at the end of the year. Sony is committed to the success of the PSP after all, Kutaragi called it the next Walkman, a title hes got to wrench back from the iPod, so if a hard drive is what it needs to compete, a hard drive is what it will get. The rumor mills say a hard drive version of the PSP could arrive by the end of 2005. In the five weeks after its introduction, the new device shipped over 800,000 units in Japan.
SONYS PSP.
(Source: Sony)
3GSM
Siemens makes its way in the world; plays catchup to other competitors
Siemens takes a sea cruise
applications. Siemens announced several modules enabling M2M applications including the TC64 and TC63. The TC64 is Java-based and quadbandcapable, and it can be used on GSM networks. The TC64 can control customer applications with components integrated on the module to create applications like alarm systems. Another module, the TC63, is designed for integration into M2M applications such as vending machines. Along with the modules, Siemens introduced its M2M One business division within Siemenss sports, etc. M2Y lets users access various channel, download videos or music clips, participate in games, and vote on videos or music clips. Siemens is also included DRM in its M2Y technology.
Mobile and Fixed interoperability Siemens has been running behind in the mobile phone sweepstakes. The Siemens demonstrated the use of company has not been able to get its 3G Bluetooth to pass mobile calls at home phones out into the market as quickly over to a fixed network. With this techas competitors and the division has lost nology, Siemens can offer people convemoney. Now Siemens is ready to fight nience and a life of one phone number. back. Over the past year the company has been going out Mobile corporate and directly questioncommunication ing users about what they want in a mobile Siemens has also phone. The company introduced the Mail has also done its fair Push and Personal Inshare of marketing, formation Manager asking users how synchronization sothey perceive Sielution for corporate mens. At 3GSM, Sienetworks. The techmens seemed deternology is installed mined to turn around on the mobile service by getting to market providers network with the latest techor on a corporate nology firstsnot network and enables necessarily a proven NO ROOM IN THE HOTEL? Siemens took a different route. Believe it or not, the secure Internet and approach for suc- company said it saved money by putting its employees up on the boat, and it intranet access. The cess. The company is does make a darned nice billboard, doesnt it? (Photo: Jon Peddie Research) technology, says Sietaking advantage of mens, will support all 3GPP and OMA caknown smartphones, pabilities and putting connected PDAs, and Wireless Modules division. M2M One them to work in applications. other mobile devices using Symbian will be able to offer customers tailored In some cases, the company is workSeries 60, Symbian UIQ, and MS WinM2M products. ing with technologies even before they dows Mobile 2003S (Smartphone and Siemens is already working with Orreach the open spec stage. Among the PPC PE). ange and Oracle. Orange introduced its companys firsts are one Gbps commuM2M connect software platform. As nications via ODFM (Orthogonal FreSiemens hopes to come back strong an example, Konica Minolta has signed quency Division Multiplexing), Near up with the companies and it is taking in 2005 Field Communication, and new security advantage of Siemens wireless module solutions. The company demonstrated Siemens CEO Lothar Pauly gave a the TC45 and Oranges M2M Connect Near Field Communication by issuing speech that was alternately proud, deto offer connections with 3000 photovisitors to their boat at the show cards fiant, and candid. For Siemens the adcopiers throughout France. Well yes, that kept track of them and made sure vances ushered in by 3G technologies we too wondered why copiers would there were more than a safe number of are an opportunity for the company to be among the first implementations of visitors. position itself as a technology leader. It M2M technology. As it turns out, KonIn other announcements, Siemens seems that the company is grabbing the ica Minolta has developed an applicaproposed the use of SIP (Session Initiastandards as soon as theyre announced tion called Archange and it allows the tion Protocol), which is currently being and running with them. As we noted, copiers to issue alerts about the state used to enable Push To Talk to enable the race doesnt always go to the first of their health, allowing timely replacePhotoTalk, allowing callers to send picone out of the gate. ment of parts and efficient machine tures as they talk, and MultiChatfor Yet Siemenss implementations of management. chat rooms where people can both talk new technologies shows vision and a Siemens is also working with Beep to and send pictures. willingness to take risks and devote provide security for M2M applications. As we mentioned elswhere in this resources to R&D at a time when the issue (see p. 9), Siemens claims to be the division is also challenged by financial M2Y first with a HSPDA application, a PClosses. Should such bravery and deterSiemenss multimedia entertainment MCIA implementation. mination be rewarded? It often is. application lets users access music and TV via channels. Customers can have M2M (3GSM coverage continues on p. 12.) access to several channels with pre-proThe company is also very enthusiasduced content including news, music, tic about machine to machine (M2M)
STANDARDS A GO GO
New 3GPP specifications finalized
The 3GPP standards organization is laboring to create standards to enable interoperability among 3G devices. At Cannes, the group showcased Release 6 of the specifications, which includes:
WEB SERVICES 1.0defines the means by which applica DOWNLOAD 1.0defines application level protocols for
tions and services can be exposed, discovered, and consumed using the same protocols regardless of device type and access method. the delivery of digital content. Includes such niceties as confirmed content download and in-advance terminal capability checking and delivery notification. to express usage rights and covers the ability to preview DRM content, to control the forwarding of DRM content to other users, and to enable new business models with super distribution of DRM content.
HIGH-SPEED RADIO UPLINK (EDCH OR HSUPA)to complement
the high-speed downlink packet access defined in Release 5 (HSDPA). HSPDA has a theoretical data rare of up to 14.4 Mbits/second; EDCH has a theoretical rate of up to 5.76 Mbits/second. core network elements for multimedia services. IMS enables full IP-based communication. The second phase ensures interoperability with circuit switched networks, non-IMS networks, and with similar but different core networks for CDMA systems.
DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT 1.0enables content providers
IP MULTIMEDIA SUBSYSTEMS (IMS) PHASE 2compresses all the
INTEROPERABILITY WITH WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORKS

(WLANS)meaning that customers can access
telecommunications services through a WLAN. There are six scenarios proposed by 3GPP, and Release 6 addresses three of them: common billing and customer care, 3GPP systembased Access Control and Charging, and access to 3GPP system packet-switched based services. The scenarios not yet addressed are service continuity, seamless services, and access to 3GPP circuit-switched services.
These are, obviously, bit enablers and they complement the specifications announced by the 3GPP. In addition, OMA also announced six additional Candidate Enabler Releases:
BROWSING 2.2based on XHTMLMobile Profile,
these guidelines include mandated minimum levels of support for Cascading Style Sheets and support for ECMA ScriptMobile Profile (ESMP). specifications for data synchronization. Synchronizes networked data with any mobile device and synchronizes a mobile device with any networked data. embedded applications operate outside of the Wireless Application Environment. External functionality may be built in, or connected to a mobile terminal. Connections can be permanent or temporary. specifications for mobile instant messaging and presence services, which can be used to enable messages and presence information between mobile devices, mobile services, and Internet-based instant messaging services. ments that define the binding requirements for communication SyncML over various transports. OMA explains that even though SyncML is transportindependent, a set of common bindings is defined to promote interoperability. key security features between clients and servers to enable authentication, confidentiality, and integrity of exchanged messages.
DATA SYNCHRONIZATION 1.2defines a set of universal EXTERNAL FUNCTIONALITY INTERFACE 1.1defines how
MULTIMEDIA BROADCAST MULTICAST SERVICE (MBMS)provides

a strategy for efficient distribution of popularly demanded multimedia content such as sports broadcasts or music clips to multiple recipients.
SUPPORT FOR CONVERSATIONAL SERVICESsuch as Push to talk

over Cellular in collaboration with the Open Mobile Alliance. Karl Heinz Rosenbrock of ETSI and a spokesperson for the 3GPP project says that Release 6 is a significant milestone with features that will have a direct impact on usersprimarily European users, we might add, at least for the present.
INSTANT MESSAGING AND PRESENCE SERVICE 1.2universal
SYNC ML COMMON SPECIFICATION 1.2includes docu-
OMA defines service enablers, elevates four to candidate status

Its exciting to watch the mesh of communications being built over our heads. Its so exciting that even the tedious drudge work required to make all the components work together is reasonably interesting to talk about. Like the 3GPP, the Open Mobile Alliance is a standards organization and its focus is broaderto enable interoperability across countries, operators, and mobile terminals. In the fall of 2004, the SOMA group announced 10 new Enabler Releases, and four of those releases have moved from candidate status to approved Enabler Release. They are:
WIRELESS PUBLIC KEY INFRASTRUCTURE 1.0adds public
MULTIMEDIA MESSAGING SERVICE 1.1enables clients to
handle messages with a variety of media types. An MMS conformance document defines the minimum set of requirements and guidelines for end-to-end interoperability of MMS handsets and servers.
Obviously, the group took care of the sexier enablers first. In all OMA has published 26 Candidate and Approved Enabler Releases. Candidate Releases can be implemented in products and tested for interoperability. Releases reaching Approved status have gone through OMAs Interoperability Program. In the third phase of OMAs program Releases are combined and offered with end-to-end interoperability test reports and information about use cases. See STANDARDS, next page
STANDARDS Continued from previous page
HSPDA gets rollout in Cannes

High Speed Downlink Packet Access, a 3GPP, is being introduced in products this year. HSPDA is expected to be available as a mainstream product in 2007 and we are now seeing the first stages as technology companies offer customers first implementations of HSPDA. Claiming to be first with an actual HSPDA product, Siemens introduced an HSPDA-capable PCMCIA card. Using a Siemens/NEC 3G W-CDMA base station, Siemens said they were able to transmit data to a notebook at speeds of almost two Mbits/second. You will note that 2 Mbits/second is a ways away from the 3GPPs theoretical rate of 14.4 Mbits/second, but with this announcement Siemens claimed to be first to demonstrate an HSPDA product. However, its all in how you define first, we suppose. Motorolas spinout Freescale Semiconductor made its 3GSM debut with the 9.300-30 platform, an HSPDAready UMTS platform. It includes the first StarCore DSP and an ARM 11 on CMOS90 technology. Motorola says it is has provided its HSPDA hardware to alpha customers. Sony Ericsson says they have already demonstrated HSPDA at the China PT Expo Comm in Beijing October 2630. Ericsson says its HSDPA systems are up and running and that they plan a commercial release in the second half of 2005. Also, Alcatel and Fujitsu Limited have announced a joint launch of a HSDPA demonstration system developed by Fujitsu. The system is being demonstrated at Alcatels 3G Reality Centre in Vlizy, France.
Initials battle on: DVB-T versus DMB

The WorldDAB association came to 3GSM to promote the virtues of DAB and especially DMB for TV broadcast.
The group pointed out that DAB chipsproduced for the most part by Imagination Technologies and Frontier Silicon or TI with the help of RadioScapes technology can be integrated in mobile devices to enable DAB reception. DAB enables audio and video streaming based on both MPEG-2 transport streams and IP. But even more important to the group is the introduction of DMB (Digital Media Broadcasting). DMB uses the DAB platform and enables the delivery of television, video, and data to mobile devices. The advantage of DAB is that there is already an established DAB network infrastructure. LG Electronics introduced the first DMB mobile phone in Korea. Right now there is a lot of conflicting information flying around about the usefulness of DMB versus DVB-H. At issue for both sides is how they manage the challenges of power management and motion. DVB-H, it is agreed, has higher rates of data transmission, but because DVB was originally developed for stationary receivers it is claimed that it does not handle moving targets as well and it is more power hungry. The forces of DVB-H enthusiastically disagree, claiming that DVB-H has been optimized for handhelds with features such as time slicing and Forward Error Correction (FEC), which addresses the issue of power consumption and motion. But, because it is a variation on Europes DVB format for digital television, DVB-H seems to have sympathetic support in Europe. Because of the wider acceptance of DAB in Great Britain, there is the possibility that DMB will get play in England. Imagination Technologies is quick to jump in the fray, having interests on both sides, and suggests the possibility of roaming capabilities, allowing devices to pick up both depending on whats available. As it so happens, Imagination was demonstrating just such a solution in their booth at 3GSM.
WE BID ADIEU TO CANNES as 3GSM moves to Barcelona.
(Photo: Jon Peddie Research)
10
SET-TOP BOXES
Continued from page 1
in the fourth quarter in the last few years. Motorola posted a 3% growth rate from 1.17 to 1.2 million units over the third quarter as the company continued to fulfill demand for its dual-tuner HD DVR solution. Our calendarized estimate for Pace has the companys unit shipments growing at 15% over the consecutive quarter from 1.0 to 1.15 million units. The company is seeing some of its efforts pay off in the U.S. The company seems to be making inroads with some cable operators and is seeing some success with telcos for its IPTV products. However, most of the growth in Paces unit shipments continues to be in the European market. While the company has not released its breakdown of which models are making up the bulk of growth, we suspect that free-to-air, FreeView, digital terrestrial, and satellite were the driving forces for most of Paces growth in the third and forth quarters. Scientific-Atlanta came in a bit behind compared to the growth rates the company had been reporting for several quarters. Shipments fell from the third quarter by 11.7% from 1.03 to 0.911 million units. The company said that
Q404 Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 Manufacturer Thomson/RCA* Motorola Pace Scientific-Atlanta Echostar TOP 5 TOTAL Other GRAND TOTAL Q3 2004 3.60 1.17 1.00 1.03 0.56 7.35 3.87 11.22 Market Share 32.1% 10.4% 8.9% 9.2% 5.0% 65.5% 34.5% 100.0% Q4 2004 3.78 1.20 1.15 0.91 0.58 7.62 4.79 12.41 Market Share 30.5% 9.7% 9.3% 7.3% 4.6% 61.4% 38.6% 100.0% Growth 5.0% 3.0% 15.0% 11.7% 3.3% 3.6% 23.9% 10.6%
TABLE 1. Preliminary worldwide digital set-top box shipments Q304 vs. Q404.
Preliminary results subject to change. *Consolidated Hughes Network Systems/Thomson/RCA results. Source: StatView Digital Set Top Box Database. 2005 Acacia Communications. All rights Reserved.
some of the orders it expected to record in the fourth quarter from Japan did not materialize. Rounding out our top five list is Echostar. We estimate its unit shipments increased 3.3% from 0.56 to 0.58 million. The company has seen growth in its international business as free-to-air and digital terrestrial demand has increased. While the company is not allowed to disclose subscriber numbers from its joint marketing venture with SBC, SBC has announced subscriber numbers over the six-figure mark. These two sources of box demand have driven an increase in our estimate of units shipped by the DBS supplier and operator. Looking at the preliminary growth rates for the year-over-year period,
Q404 Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 Manufacturer Thomson/RCA* Motorola Pace Scientific-Atlanta Echostar TOP 5 TOTAL Other GRAND TOTAL Q4 2003 3.38 1.12 0.51 0.96 0.34 6.31 3.14 9.45
the potential increase for the industry is spectacular, given the performance over 2002, 2003, and the beginning of 2004. We give a lot of the credit for growth to the multi-room marketing initiatives of the satellite industry in the U.S. and the drive to bring free satellite and digital terrestrial services to viewers in both Europe and Asia. Another important factor to note is the growth in the Other category. Quarter after quarter we have written that most of the growth in the industry has been driven by the top five or ten vendors in the market. This has been true for a very long time. We have also written about the looming Asian market boom. We sounded the note of caution, but we have been
Market Share 35.8% 11.8% 5.4% 10.1% 3.6% 66.7% 33.3% 100.0% Q4 2004 3.78 1.20 1.15 0.91 0.58 7.62 4.79 12.41 Market Share 30.5% 9.7% 9.3% 7.3% 4.6% 61.4% 38.6% 100.0% Growth 11.8% 7.3% 125.5% 4.9% 69.1% 20.8% 52.4% 31.3%
TABLE 2. Preliminary worldwide digital set-top box shipments Q403 vs. Q404.
Preliminary results subject to change. *Consolidated Hughes Network Systems/Thomson/RCA results. Source: StatView Digital Set Top Box Database. 2005 Acacia Communications. All rights Reserved.
11
SET-TOP BOXES
waiting for that boom just like everyone else. What is hidden in the Other category is a group of smaller vendors that have been making deals in these markets and developing products targeted at these markets. The growth in Others shows that the numbers are starting to become significant enough to have an impact on market growth. DVN Holdings went from tens of thousands of units in 2002 to 240,000 units shipped in 2004. The company is one of the main suppliers to the Mainland Chinese pay television market. Their growth indicates that unit volumes are beginning to have impact on market growth. The company estimates that it will be shipping millions of units within the next few years. The two tables show data that is much more volatile than it would appear. Dominated by the U.S. and one European company, the list is sure to see some movement by Asian vendors in the years to come. Keep an eye on the aforementioned DVN Holdings and watch out for Humax. The Korean company has made a name for itself in the European market. Humax has also developed products for the Indian market. If the company can maintain its contracts through this rough period of integration, it is poised to experience significant growth. Another area to keep an eye on is IPTV. As we have warned about other markets before, this is the latest category to see irrational exuberance from some forecasters. Vendors we have spoken to are throwing around numbers in the tens of thousands per month, not the hundreds of thousands that it would take to reach some of the forecasts we have seen. That said, compression technology is advancing and it may just be reaching a point to free up the bandwidth that telcos need to start competing with other pay television offerings. As a result, IPTV could start having a real impact on the market numbers in the next few years.
How important is industrial design in DVD competition?

By Christine Arrington
VD players and now recorders have been a staple at the Consumer Electronics Show for many years. Discussions of DVD strategy generally center on cost; how low can vendors drive the price of a DVD player? That same driving force has begun to characterize the DVD recordable market as well. Generally speaking, it can be argued that the consumer electronics industry has been fairly content with its industrial design. The black box that fits neatly into the entertainment center stack has served the industry and the consumer well. There really has not been a great need to change what has worked.
and its Yahoo-branded DVD players and home theater systems (see photos). The reason we think this design might make some headway into the market this time has more to do with the Yahoo branding and accompanying online distribution than with the design only. One Diamond Electronics introduced several DVD and home theater boxes at CES 2005 that break the mold. The YDP-700 (Figure 1) is 8.26 x 5.24 x 2.16 inches, weighing in at 1.4 pounds. The unit plays DVDs, CDs, and MP3s. The YDP-530 (Figure 2) includes a 4-in-1 memory card reader, IR head phones, and is DivX certified. In a first for both companies, these units carry the Yahoo brand. One Dia-
FIGURE 1. One Diamond Electronics YDP-700Yahoo-branded DVD player. (Source: One Diamond Electronics)
mond is the largest DVD OEM for suppliers in Mexico. The Yahoo line represents One Diamonds entry into the U.S. market, and it is Yahoos first venture into branded DVD and home theater systems. One Diamond VP of sales and marketing Kent Dickerson said that the companys goal in designing DVD and home theater systems was to develop a design that is unique with A/V and online features that are also unique. The company is targeting three segments of the consumer market with its designs. The general market will be targeted with products that closely resemble those already on in consumer homes. The Millennial, which the company identifies as a bit younger audience, will be targeted with more cutting-edge designs than the Prosumer, who is a bit upscale with less price sensitivity. The potential buyers will be targeted with the higher end designs and features. These segments will be targeted through online distribution and what the company says will be a methodical ramp up through single-channel partnerships to spur progressive and scalable growth.
Consumers, home builders, and furniture makers have depended on a standardized form factor for devices that will be integrated into the living room. Wherever the geographic region there is a standard form factor that fits. In the U.S. some consumer electronics manufacturers have tried to break that mold of the standard CE industrial design with varying success. Even PC makers have jumped into the fray, trying out different form factors that might entice a user to bring the PC out of the office or bedroom. For DVD players in particular the result of all of this experimentation has essentially been a thinner version of the existing form factor in either black or silver. Once again, this year we saw some new designs emergingspecifically One Diamond Electronics
(Source: One Diamond Electronics)

FIGURE 2. One Diamond Electronics YDP-530 Yahoo-branded DVD player.
12
MEDIA PROCESSORS
MEDIA PROCESSORS AT 3GSM

Atsana J2211 Media Processor
Tucked away in an apartment overlooking La Croisette, the main boulevard, and the azure ocean of Cannes was Atsanaa very civilized setting for having a discussion. In the suite we got to see the development board for the new chip from Atsana, the J2211, as well as a new camera phone that its in. The phone looks more like a camera than a phone, but you can slide the display to the right to reveal the keypad if you want to make a call. The J2211 is based on Atsanas impressive array processor, which allows the media processor to deliver MPEG-4 H.263 encode and decode, support for up to 4-megapixel sensors, and gaming. The company specs their new multimedia processor at 1200 MIPS for the array processor (running at 110 MHz) with the ARM922 running at 200 MHz. They managed to squeeze all that into a 240 CABGA thats 10 x 10 mm2. The organization of the chip is shown in Figure 3 (below). Atsana recently partnered with gaming chip developer Synergenix, which
will allow Atsana to include Synergenix gaming technology in its mobile application processor architectures. Atsana will embed the Synergenix mophun games engine into its J2211 SIMDbased application processor. The chip can support two displays as well as MP3 and other audio codecs. The company has other design wins, which it hopes it will be able to talk about in a month or so.
FIGURE 1. Atsana in camera phone that looks like a

camera.
Bitboys 2D, 3D, and movies

Always one of the best demo organizations in the market, Bitboyss latest efforts were no disappointment. In their stand they showed a new 3D demo of a space plane landing on a pad, and then issuing stream as it touched down, with nice anti-aliased edges on FIGURE 2. Atsana phone opened up for video and the wings. And overhead games. (Photo: Jon Peddie Research) on a plasma screen there was a wide-screen display of an underwater world (see below). tation of Open VG, and they claimed The G40 is the latto have the first implementation of the est implementation of new 2D vector API. the Bitboys IP core, and VG is going to enable a lot of apcompares to the G34 as plications and put the Khronos group shown in Table 1 (next right in the face of Macromedias Flash. page). VG will allow great maps, 2D characBut the big news was ters and games, and Asian characters, as the Bitboyss implemenshown in the photo above).
FIGURE 3. Atsanas J2211 media processor.
(Source: Atsana)
FIGURE 4. Atlantis on the G40.
(Source: Bitboys)
13
G40 200 MHz AMBA, OCP, customer specific Up-to 2048 x 1024 16/32/64-bit floating-point 16/32-bit 1/4/8-bit Programmable geometry and pixel processors Yes Yes OpenVG, SVG OpenGL ES 2.0 Direct3D Mobile, M3G Hardware Yes Yes Yes Flipquad Yes Yes Yes Yes 4 1024 x 1024 Yes Per-pixel Yes 4/8/16/32 and 64-bit floating-point DXT1, Packman UYVY, YUY2, YVYU Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 16-16-16-16 floating-point Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PHYSICAL FEATURES Maximum clock frequency* Interfaces Frame buffer size Frame buffer modes Z-buffer modes Stencil buffer modes GENERAL FEATURES Architecture 2D graphics acceleration 3D graphics acceleration Vector graphics acceleration API support Transformation and lighting OpenGL ES pixel pipeline Vertex shaders Pixel shaders Anti aliasing Early Z-check Point rendering Line rendering Triangle and quad rendering TEXTING FEATURES Number of textures/pixel Maximum texture size Perspective correct texturing Texture LOD Projected textures Texture formats Compressed texture formats YUV texture formats Bilinear filter MIP-mapping Trilinear filter SHADING Perspective correct shading Ambient and Gouraud shading Specular shading DOT3 blend mode Alpha blending Dithering Fog Internal color precision 2D GRAPHICS BitBlt Fill Raster operations Rotated copy Color keying *TSMC 0.13 process Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 10-10-10-10 2 1024 x 1024 Yes Per-pixel Yes 4/8/16/32-bit DXT1, Packman UYVY, YUY2, YVYU Yes Yes Yes 200 MHz
G34 MEDIA PROCESSORS
AMBA, OCP, customer specific Up-to 2048 x 1024 16/32-bit 16/32-bit 1/4/8-bit Programmable geometry processor with fixed-function pixel pipeline Yes Yes No OpenGL ES 1.1, Direct3D Mobile, M3G Hardware Yes Yes No Flipquad Yes Yes Yes Yes
TABLE 1. Comparison of Bitboys IP cores.

(Source: Bitboys)
14
MEDIA PROCESSORS
onstration of the combination of the Renesas SH-Mobile3 (SH73182) application processor and PowerVR MBX Lite. The course is 6 km long modeled with more than 20,000 triangles. The cars feature multiple levels of detail peaking at 1,500 triangles per car, and rendered with multi-texturing and accurate reflection-mapping. Phil Akin, ITs product manager for PowerVR, said that the PowerVR MBXs PVR-TC texture compression is used throughout, with mipmapFIGURE 5. Chinese characters on a mobile phone. ping and full-scene anti(Photo: Jon Peddie Research) aliasing, and that will deliver VGA-quality imagery on a QVGA-resolution, with The G40 is targeted to run OpenGL performance greater than 30 fps. ES 2.0 and exploit the chips programmable shaders in Q3, and the company Nvidia GoForce 3D 4800 hopes to be able to announce an order for the G40 in a few weeks from a large A while back Nvidia reorganized Japanese company. their model numbering system such that Also, in a couple of months the comthe 3000 series was 2D and the 4000 pany is planning a 2D-only part, tenseries is 3D, but they are adding the tatively named G12, to take advantage 3D to the name just to make sure you of the companys vector engine and apget it. They are also trying to establish peal to the large 2D market in mobile an acronym for their handheld parts, phones. Wireless Media Processor, or WMPit Those energetic Finns are also workremains to be seen if that will catch on ing on a H.264 implementation. like their GPU acronym did. So Nvidia has introduced, just before the 3GSM show, their GoForce 3D 4800 WMP Imagination Technologies just rolls right off the tongue, doesnt Feeling the glow of several deal anit? (See Figure 7, next page, for a block nouncements and the delivery of TIs diagram.) OMAP2 processor, Imagination TechIn short the 4800 offers hardware nologies (IT) came to Cannes confident, acceleration of 3D graphics and supcheery, and congenial. And why not? port for megapixel still imaging. It inThey had three OMAP2 development cludes a JPEG hardware encoder, which boards with games running on them, can handle up to a 3-megapixel sensor. accelerated by ITs MBX, and HI Corp. was showing off their stuff on one of the boardsthey looked good, period (see Figure 6, right). If you look very closely at the display you can see a racing game running. The bright lights of the stand and my poor photography skills (or lack of any)not the chipcan be blamed for the poor image. Also, we and just about everyone else we talked to couldnt help but notice the effect of a low-quality screenwhat a remarkably dumb place to cheap out. FIGURE 6. Imagination Technologies Also on ITs stand was Renesas TechOMAP2 development board. (Photo: Jon nology using one of their development Peddie Research) boards to show PowerVR Racer, a demVOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 FEBRUARY 28, 2005
And although the company says there is a MPEG-4 decoder capable of VGA resolution video at rates up to 30 fps, the 4800 does not have H.264 so it will not find a home in any phones that are destined for live TV viewing. The 4800 is the second in Nvidias 3D line, their first part, the GoForce, 4500 being announced in September of 2004. Nvidia actually announced it (originally called the AR10) at 3GSM last year and also announced a new business modeli.e., that they would offer it as IP and then as a chip. The 4500, of course, found its way into the Gizmondo that was shown at CES. So whats new? Well, Manish Singh, product manager for the 3D handheld stuff at Nvidia, told me there are four major developments in the 4800, as folllows. IMAGING. One of the attributes MediaQ brought to Nvidia with their technology was the ability to handle high-resolution image sensors; only problem was at the time there werent any to handle. So youve heard MediaQ and consequently Nvidia bragging about high-res image capability for a while, and the 4800 boasts of handling up to 3-megapixel (2048 x 1536) images (with ITU-R 656compliant 8-bit interface). What Nvidia has added to the 4800 is an enhancement on the JPEG compression. The company has come up with a way of comparing macro blocks within the JPEG and then when the adjoining detail is low or very similar, like say a view of the sky or a white wall, they will merge the macro cells thereby saving memory and adding to the coefficient budget for more detailed portions of the picture. The company is calling this new feature FotoPackclever. Weve seen it tried before by others without too much luck, but Nvidia thinks theyve got it figured out, and they have even applied for a patent on it.
3D PERFORMANCE. Not much to report here. Basically theyve upped the clock from 72 MHz on the 4500 to 100 MHz on the 4800. The chip still has a nice fat 128-bit bus for memory. And at CTIA in New Orleans next month the company will announce a new graphics interconnect. The chip offers pixel-shader architecture with support for up to six simultaneous textures, and compliance with OpenGL ES/MD3D 1.0.
VIDEO. Here the company has enlarged the display area and the subse-
15
MEDIA PROCESSORS
quent data paths and procore in it, running at a modcessing necessary to support est 54 MHz. The chip had larger screen, from CIF on the integration of various the 4500 to VGA, and this multimedia accelerators and is an MPEG-4/H.263 hardsupport functions such as ware codec encode as well MPEG-4 hardware accelera as display. Display managetor, 3-megapixel camera inment is another one of Meterface, and a video-output diaQs legacies, being able unit for connection of the to support some 80+ screen mobile phone to a TV set types, with up to 18-bpp for and LCD controller. 262k colors. The system combines Also, the chip can be high-performance fixed used for real-time, full-dupoint DSP and 32 MBytes plex, two-way videoconferof high-performance stacked encing at CIF (352 x 288) SDRAM, allowing large, rich resolution at 30 fps. It also FIGURE 7. Nvidias SC12 GeForce 4800 WMP block diagram. gaming experiences without offers encoding of rotated (Source: Nvidia) compromising texture resovideo, post-video processlution. ing, including hardware color space conversion and software in between known as a driver Toshiba T4G 3D image scaling, and de-blocking and dewasnt either. The Java VM needed to accelerator ringing filters to enhance the image be tweaked. For one thing, JSR184 requality during playback quires floating-point, and Nvidias chip On display in the Toshiba stand was works best in fixed-point, and Java uses a wall card describing a new 3D chip, ENHANCED POWER MANAGEMENT. This mixed-mode rendering and the driver the T4g, that Toshiba will be introducis always the big issue in a handheld needed to change it to poly rendering ing (see Figure 8, left). (theres still no Moores Law for batterfor the Nvidia chip. So the net result There was no one around to talk ies, as we like to say). Nvidia has found was the demos didnt look too good, about it, and the people in the stand ways to improve its nPower technology and most of them were old Java demos seemed as confused by it as did the and manage some of the leakage, added to begin with. CTIA demos will be betpassersby. No data sheets, delivery, or more clocked (off) circuits, and tweaked ter, count on it. any other information was available. their 130-nanometer process. The new chip is 12 x 10 mm and should sell in the sub-$15 range, finding Renesas SH-Mobile3where Zoran second-generation a home in the $200-range handhelds. 3 stands for 3D Approach 4C multimedia application The company has lined up four of six of the major OEMs for the part, and those Renesas had a large display of proprocessor phones, if they go into production, will cessors at the conference, but it was the At 3GSM Zoran announced their show up in late 2005. SH-Mobile V2 and 3 that caught our second-generation Approach 4C multiattention. The SH-Mobile3 features a media application processor with inteSH4 AL-DSP core that the company Quality issues? grated mobile-SDRAM. The 4C7 is the says can hit 389 MIPS at 216 MHz. Several people at the show told us to second product in a new line of procesIts the chip that has Imagination Techgo see Nvidias demos and said (some sors for multimedia applications in monologiess PowerVR MBX-Lite 2D/3D with glee in their voice), They dont bile phones. Zoran demonstrated look very good. Given Nvidias the new mobile phone technologies reputation for great graphics, peoin reference platforms. ple were a little surprised (and you In addition to the development could hear relief in some peoples board, Zoran had new mobile voices). So, we went and looked. handsets vendors in Korea, Taiwan Its true, they didnt look very good. and China on display. Zoran says How could that be? their solutions have been selected to power over 20 different handBlame it on Java set models from major multimedia phone vendors many of which will Nvidia decided that 3GSM was be coming to market later this year. where the carriers and operators Zorans Approach 4C multimewould be, and so they chose to use dia application processor offers indemos that used Java, assuming that tegrated SDRAM (MCM), MPEG-4 the operators would relate to that, video capture and playback, H.264 and appreciate that Nvidia controlvideo decoding, 3-megapixel camera lers were compliant. The problem interface, 3D games and 3D audio was they werent all that compli- FIGURE 8. Toshiba T4G 3D chip. (Source: Toshiba) effects, MP3 and AAC+ playback. ant, and that little gotcha hunk of The diagram in Figure 10 (below)
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MEDIA PROCESSORS
only?) 3D phonethe V360 is available only in Korea. And for those who knew where to look, ATI could be found at the docks in their pleasure craft (see photo, below). Yes, that is a tent on top of the boat, no, the French flag is not attached to the boat, and yes, this as close as we got to the floating palace.
FIGURE 9. Zoran Approach 4C7

development platform.
Research) (Photo: Jon Peddie
Qualcomm demonstrates its Q3D gaming architecture

Qualcomm did not make a huge deal out of their new Q3D Dimension platform and MSM6xxx hardware, but then the company really doesnt go in for mass marketing. Rather, Qualcomm was at 3GSM making sure the right people saw their wares and we have no doubt they did. In addition to developing application processors for the handheld market, Qualcomm has developed a software architecture to complement its products. The Q3Dimension gaming solution is part of Qualcomms Launchpad suite of software technologies. Q3Dimension is a development tool enabling the adaptation of PC and Console games to the wireless platform. Q3Dimension offers 3D gaming capabilities for CDMA, WCMDA (UMTS), and GSM/ GPRS wireless systems. In addition, the Q3Dimension software enables the development of 3D screen savers and logos, user interfaces, 3D messaging, embedded and downloadable games, location-based visual services, sound visualization, image enhancement, and simple animations such as avatars.

shows the general organization of the chip. The multimedia mobile phone market is expanding and Zoran is listening closely to their customers. Zoran says they are telling them that they want to be able to deliver new products for multiple market segments quickly. Zoran thinks their Approach processors will allow OEMs to deliver a wide variety of features for entry, mid-level, or highend handsets, and they claim no other solution offers 3D gaming and television streaming capabilities in such a small package using such low power consumption.
FIGURE 11. LG SV360 with ATI2320

chip.
ATI spotted at 3GSM

Boothless, ATI managed to have its presence felt, albeit slightly. In the LG booth the LT1000 was on display and listed as the worlds first (or was it

Qualcomm has included a fast, 3D rendering engine that enables 3D games, animation, advanced user interfaces and other applications to take advantage of the 3D graphics capabilities of wireless devices. Qualcomm as you know has licensed ATIs Imageon technology for its mobile chipsets. Qualcomm says its Q3Dimension engine and APIs allow developers to reformat all the basic functions expected in a modern 3D accelerated device and Q3Dimension supports all OpenGL ES Common Light graphics extensions. At 3GSM Qualcomm was showing its WCDMA product, the MSM6250A, which increases the speed of the ARM
FIGURE 10. Zoran Approach 4C7 media processor block

diagram. (Source: Zoran)
FIGURE 12. ATIs pleasure craft.
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9 core to 180 MHz for inIn other news creased multimedia capabil Qualcomm has found an ity while remaining pin-com influential partner for its Mopatible with the MSM6250. bile Display Digital Interface The MSM6250A is built (MDDI) display interface. using Qualcomms 90-nano Epson announced that its meter process. S1D13751 LCD controller The MSM6xxx chipset chip has integrated MDDI. family feature Qualcomms radioOne Zero Intermediate Frequency (ZIF) architec Epson pursues several turea design that requires markets less printed-circuit-board area than previous generaEpsons newest products tions. And of course, the address the car market. On MSM6xxx line includes February 15, while most of Qualcomms Brew system, QUALCOMM CAN OFFER ITS CUSTOMERS a development environment for Epsons competitors were enabling the development its processors. (Source: Qualcomm) basking in the cold sun on and over-the-air deployment the Cannes beaches, Epson of data services on wireless was announcing its new devices. S1D13702 OLED display of calendar year 2006. Qualcomms next-generation prodcontroller designed for the automobile Joining the we-are-first-to-haveucts will take advantage of the dualand arcade markets. This is the second HSDPA club, Qualcomm demonstrated processor architecture and multimedia chip Epson has introduced for the autoan HSDPA product in the TM6275 test feature of Qualcomms Convergence mobile OLED marketthe first was the mobile device, which is now available. Platform with support for 7.2 Mbps or S1D3701, and Epson says it has been higher HSDPA, Enhanced Uplink (EUL), well received. The new product supand Multimedia Broadcast Multicast ports OLEDs with 260,000 colors, fast Service. It is coming in the first quarter response speed, and overlapping displays enabling the chip to handle fastFEATURE SPECIFICATIONS moving video images. It also minimizes the burden on the system CPU. Color buffer format 16-bit RGB The chip is an 80-pin, 12 x 12 x Z-buffer depth 16-bit Z-buffer 1.4 mm QFP and is shipping in sample quantities now for approximately $10. Primitives Vertex arrays, points, lines, triangles
Projections Standard transformations Custom transformations Rasterization Lighting Texture depth
Perspective, orthographics, viewport scaling Translation, rotation, scaling Matrix stack. load matrix, multiply matrix, query matrix Flat and shaded surfaces, face culling, polygon offset, fog Per vertex lighting, including ambient, diffuse and specular components 2D, 4-bit, 9-bit palletized; 16-bit 555 RGB, 24-bit 888 RGB, 16-bit 5551 and 4444 RGBA, 32-bit 8888 RGBA, 8-bit L, 16-bit LA, 8-bit A, texture compression 256 x 256 maximum per texture Limited by system memory Nearest, bilinear, trilinear All OpenGL, ES wrapping and blending modes Texture subimage, copy texture subimage Scissor, alpha, depth test, blending, logical operations Clear to color, read pixels Get static state queries
Meanwhile, back in Cannes

The various divisions of Epson are not exactly a closeknit group, and the development going on in the companys display controller side does not necessarily depend on or have much to do with the development going on in the companys other areas. As a result, Epson doesnt tend to integrate a lotrather, the company seems to introduce a lot of disparate chips. A case in point in Cannes is the introduction of the S1V30200 Audio Decoder by Epson Europe electronics. This is a companion chip that offers support for stereo decoding of MP3, AAC, and aacPlus. It is designed for mobile handsets to enable ringtones and music playback, portable music players, and automotive audio systems. Its available in a 100-pin PFBGA package. Epson hopes to avoid the necessity of going IP. Ideally the company hopes to keep selling processors but it seems to us that someone had better start talking to someone because the market has made it clear that SoCs are the order of the day.
Texture size Number of textures Texture filtering Texture wrapping and blending Texture manipulation Fragment processing Color buffer operations Graphics feedback
TABLE 1. Qualcomms 3D capabilities.

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TV AT 3GSM
veryone knows were going to watch TV on our phones. Various trials have been under way since last fall, and various prototype phones have been seen at shows and privately as mentioned in our report Handheld Multimedia Devices and in TechWatch (Nov. 29, 2004). How people should TV on their phones, however, is still up in the air, so to speak, with the choices being streaming via the phone network, direct from a satellite, pre-recorded via some type of memory (SD, USB, etc.), from a TV or other recorder, or the old-fashioned way, over the air. As it turns out over the air may be the best choice. However, even that comes with choices, those being Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H), and Terrestrial (DVB-T), the Korean Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB), and the Japanese Integrated Services Digital Broadcast-Terrestrial (ISDB-T). Also there is TV delivered as streaming data over the mobile phone system. T-DMB broadcast services in Korea are expected to be rolled out in the first half of 2005. LG is working to establish the Korean T-DMB standard as a global standard. Korea is believed to have a significant lead in the drive to bring mobile broadcasting to market. At 3GSM we got to see all of these approaches, and guess what, they all claim to be the winner.
FIGURE 1. Conceptual view of DVB-H demodulator. (Source: Imagination Technologies)

as MSNBC and CNBC, ABC News and ABC News Now, The Weather Channel, and DIC Entertainment. According to Richard Bennett, president and CEO of SmartVideo, Action Engines browserless client/server platform gives mobile users faster, easier, and more secure access to SmartVideos streaming televised content. Bennett thinks the public is clearly hungry for TV on the go. Action Engine says their solution lets subscribers use interconnected Brand-nGo applications to watch TV programs, shop on Amazon.com, bid on eBay items, read news stories, check weather, stocks, and sports scores, get driving directions, and find restaurants and movie times 20 times faster, while using 80% fewer keystrokes than browser-based alternatives. At 3GSM Microsoft demonstrated Brand-n-Go to visitors in its Windows Mobile theater and gave away free Secure Digital (SD) cards loaded with the Brand-n-Go software from Action Engine. Action Engine also showed a European version of Brand-n-Go and its 2005 product roadmap to Java phones. ware and development tools necessary to integrate the BCM2705 multimedia processor into new mobile phone designs. As we mentioned in the last issue, the BCM2705 is Broadcoms first multimedia processor chip based on the Alphamosaic VideoCore architecture that Broadcom acquired last year. Similar to the previously announced BCM2702 (Alphamosaic part number VC02), the BCM2705 is based on Broadcoms VideoCore video-processing engine, making the two chips software-compatible, completely programmable, and, says Broadcom, able to handle the same range of audio and video formats. In addition, the BCM2705 is pin-compatible with the BCM2702 so that both devices can be interchanged during the latter stages of product development, allowing maximum flexibility to Broadcoms OEM partners. However, the VC02 was speced at supporting up to two 8-megapixel cameras (not that there are any), and the BMC2705 is limited to 4-megapixel sensors. Also, the VC02 ambitiously offers support for display resolution up to 1024 x 768 with 24-bit internal precision (scalable to the screen used), and the BMC2705 strangely specs the display in inches (evidently Broadcom PR has some education to get on handheld display devices). Broadcom says that mid-range mobile phones based on this new processor are capable of displaying VGA video at 30 fps, resulting in performance that the company opines is comparable to the video clarity of a conventional TV. The chip also provides MPEG-4 encode and decode functionality for video record and playback quality (previously only available on high-end digital video camcorders) while still offering long battery life. The press release price for the chip is in the range of $10, though obviously it will be less for volume.
Action Engine streaming TV server

Action Engine Corp. announced plans to integrate live streaming TV into its Brand-n-Go turnkey mobile applications pack. Action Engine and its partner SmartVideo Technologies jointly demonstrated live TV application during the 3GSM World Congress. Brand-n-Go currently gives wireless subscribers access to mobile Internet content from providers such as Amazon.com, eBay, Fox Sports, and the Microsoft MapPoint Team and Windows Media and Windows Server. Working in collaboration with SmartVideo, Action Engine will add a live broadcast TV application to the Brand-n-Go applications pack, giving users the ability to watch streaming TV programs directly from their mobile phones. SmartVideo recently announced content distribution deals with national programmers, such
Broadcom delivers affordable high-quality video to mobile phones

Broadcom also announced a TV solution at 3GSM, their VideoCore multimedia processor that they say can function as a handheld TV, camcorder, and digital camera. It can display video on 2-inch color LCD screens and capture 4-megapixel images, and do it simultaneously. Furthermore, the company claims its little processor can enable these features while making no significant impact on talk time. Broadcom says the VideoCore BCM2705 can also support gaming and music capabilities to mid-range phones. In addition, Broadcom provides softVOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 FEBRUARY 28, 2005
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DiBcom brings TV to your phone
Long before you had any hope of getting TV on your phone, the standards wars were raging. A small French company, DiBcom, embraced the DVB-T/H standard and applied it to automotive and boats applicationsthat was back in 2000. By 2002 the company had developed a chip, the DIB3000-M, which, the company says, is the first to enable DTT in a mobile environment. They showed that chip to several car companies, and to some OEMs who make aftermarket electronics for cars and boats, and got a very strong acceptance. Soon cars in Taiwan and Australia appeared with TVs in them, and if youve been to Taiwan lately you will have noticed many of the taxis have such a system (which can be a little disconcertingtaxi rides in Taipei are thrilling enough when the driver is watching the road; theyre downright frightening if hes watching TV while navigating the ebbs and flows of chaotic Taipei traffic). Later this year we can expect to see Mercedes and other prestige brands offer new cars with TV, with a screen in the back and one in the front; however, the one in the front will turn off as soon a the car starts to move (phew). So DiBcom has had three plus years of hard-won real-world experience with making over-the-air TV work in a moving vehicle, and that puts them at the head of the pack for putting over-the-air TV on a mobile phone. One of the most important issues in an over-the-air (OTA) mobile TV is how well it deals with, ah, movement. And that comes down to two things: signal strength and Doppler rejection. And heres where it gets technical and the men are separated from the boys. DiBcom thinks they have the secret sauce when it comes to Doppler rejection. Their chip can maintain a pretty flat 13-dB Doppler rejection all the way out to 120 Hz, which is equivalent to 200 km/h (at 500 MHz in 8k mode). Not only is this good rejection, but it saves the carriers money too. According to the engineers at DiBcom, a 3-dB wobble along the curve (from 0 to 120 Hz) will double the operators costs; this, says Yannick Lvy, president and Directeur Gnral of DiBcom, is where experience in the field pays offYou cant just go build a chip that receives DVB and expect to get this kind of performance. And backing up that claim, in addition to the design wins the company now has, is a new receiver, the DIB7000-H. One of the pretenders to the throne of OTA mobile TV is DMB, which is a derivative of the DAB radio standard used in the U.K. The Doppler rejection in DAM is not very tight, according to DiBcom. However, multimedia chip specialist Frontier Silicon has laid plans to develop a version of its Chorus processor that will support the emerging South Korean standard for mobile TV on products to be launched in Korea in 2005. The new DVB-H MPE-FEC frame extraction and correction will improve the quality of mobile and portable reception (a 6-dB gain has been achieved). Time slicing is supported and can reduce power consumption by a factor of 10 in DVB-H mode as compared to DVB-T. It also can switch off the tuner and demodulator/decoder between bursts. Other standards, such as ISDB-T used in Japan, truncate video bandwidth. As a result, they limit the amount of data thats required for TV on a handheld device. These schemes can reduce power consumption by as much as a factor of 10. Yet both of them somewhat degrade picture quality. DVB-H/T overcomes the signal strength issue by using 8-MHz spectrum, can get 8,000 channels with H and 2,000 with T (as opposed to DMBs one channel), and claims that if any one or two or three channels fades there are several others to work with. This, by the way, has been amply proven several years ago at IBC in Amsterdam (2002) when the local trams were outfitted with real-time OTA TV as a demo of the compensation for (sometimes) fastmoving vehicles. That was DVB-T and the TV was shown on 15-inch LCDs mounted in the trams. When you shrink down to a handheld device with a screen that is under seven inches, you can also drop down to DVB-H. And when dealing with the small displays on handsets with such low resolutions, the human eye really cant detect such picture-quality reductions. DVB-H is expected to be deployed in Europe in 2006, and as early as 2005 in the United States. Crown Castle, a pioneer in DVB-H infrastructure and deployment, has already announced the roll-out of DVB-H services on a nationwide basis, and has selected DiBcom to participate in its trials in Pittsburgh. Looking at the different standards that exist in wireless consumer applications today represented in the picture below (Figure 2), it is interesting to observe that two standards seem to emerge for bi-directional and broadcast mobile
FIGURE 2. Digital wireless broadcast transmission standards.

(Source: DiBcom)
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communications, that is UMTS and DVB-T; UMTS being the straightforward extension of GSM. The company is showing a reference design that plugs into a PDA SD memory port, shown in Figure 3 (below), that they hope will be adopted into the phone itself. However, they are also speaking with aftermarket OEMs and we can expect to se such accessories on retail shelves probably this fall for about 50 to 60. Currently only the U.K., Holland, and Germany are offering DVB-T/H service, and France is expected to go online later this year. The other market the company is looking at is laptop PCs, and for that they have developed a USB reference design (shown in Figure 4, below) that has been on the market since last year in the U.K. and Germany. The new chip from DiBcom is made at UMC in 130-nanometer process, is in an 8 x 8 mm package, and will sell in mobile phone volumes for as low as $11.00. MVED1 multi-standard video encode/ decode accelerator IP at 3GSM. The IP core, says the company, enables video graphics with low power consumption in a range of applications such as mobile and handheld multimedia and mobile TV (including DVB-H). MVED1 builds on the decode features of the PowerVR MVDA2 core with encode acceleration including programmability that the company says offers standards future-proofing. The architecture allows either the encode or decode functions to be used, or both simultaneously (for example, in videophones). An internal buffer minimizes accesses to external memory by the encode functions, to reduce power and memory system overhead. David McBrien, Imagination Technologiess VP of business development, says the reduction in CPU load achieved with MVED1 can reach over 90%, depending on the video-coding standard in use. This is of increased importance when performing quarter-pel motion compensation as used in modern video compression standards, he added. Imagination says the MVED1 accelerates the encode and/or decode of H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, MPEG2, WMV8, and WMV9 video streams, and thereby offloads a range of CPUintensive functions such as transform and quantization and their inverses, motion estimation and compensation, intra prediction, and deblocking filtering from the host software. The hardware acceleration features also support JPEG stillimage processing and M-JPEG. Adds McBrien, With its multi-standard encode and decode and support of bit rates up to 10 Mbits per second and programmable resolutions up to 720 x 576, MVED1 enables unsurpassed picture quality. Add to that advanced power management features for very low power consumption, and reductions in CPU load typically over 80%, and MVED1 is the ideal choice for mobile multimedia and TV devices. MVED1s in-loop deblocking is performed either by directly accessing the macroblocks from the decoder hardware or by fetching them from system memory, which allows it to be used for general video post-processing. The chip is available with a video encode/decode acceleration driver, which supports the acceleration of common video codecs through a single easy-to-use interface. The driver is available for Linux and WinCE platforms. The MVED1 core is configurable
Imagination Technologies PowerVR MVED1 multi-standard video codec

The PowerVR division of Imagination Technologies showed its PowerVR
FIGURE 3. DiBcoms SD reference board. (Photo: Jon Peddie Research)
FIGURE 4. DiBcoms DIB7000-H receiver on USB board.
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at synthesis time for 32- or 64-bit system bus widths, and the company says power requirements are optimized by sophisticated power management techniques using register-level and modulelevel clock gating to ensure the lowest active and standby power. SD resolution is also supported with a 150-MHz clock frequency. A full-rate H.264 baseline profile stream decode can be achieved with the core running at less than 50 MHz (CIF resolution: 352 x 288 pixels, 30 frames per second). PowerVR MVED1 is available as soft IP and ships with synthesis scripts, a verification test suite to ensure correct implementation of the design in an SoC, a hardware implementation guide, and a programmers reference manual. and the small chip size will make it easier to integrate into the mobile phone. With DVB-H, operators can also broadcast mobile phone software updates to a large number of handsets simultaneously; and this, according to Philipss precept, will enable the addition of revenue-generating applications after a phone has been purchased. To further enhance the offering, Philips has partnered with Silicon & Software Systems (S3) to integrate its onHandTV software into the solution, which is a DVB-H-compliant product that complements the Philips SiP. As part of the agreement, S3 will join Philipss Nexperia Partner Program, an initiative to enable ISVs and Integrators to deliver middleware, applications, and reference designs based on the companys Nexperia family of semiconductors. To enhance the user experience of TV on mobile, Philips Software will offer an application that supports H.264 video and AAC audio for high-quality viewing and listening. It also incorporates Philipss picture and audio enhancement IP from its CE products, including Natural Motion for smooth, easy-to-watch images and smart color mapping for colors on LCD displays. tation is designed to offer protection without affecting the user experience. CinemaElectric is using PacketVideo in its PocketCinema application. The company offers mobile video content for download in six lifestyle categories. Sony is demonstrating StreamMan, a mobile music service offering mobile entertainment through the 3GPP standard AAC. Sony is using Alcatels pvNS. InfoSpace Mobile is using Alcatel pvNS to offer mobile video content from Lafflinkstand-up comedy. MediaLive of France is using pvServer to provide audio/video streams and downloads over any telecommunications network. At 3GSM, Medialive demonstrated DRM-protected video downloads using pvServer. Yacast provides online streaming and content delivery services to radio and TV companies. Yacast will demonstrate the live streaming of radio services to mobile phones using Alcatel pvServer. EarthCam.com is a network of live webcams and enables searching of worldwide webcams. EarthCam provides infrastructure services to manage, host, and maintain live streaming video camera systems for consumer and corporate customers. EarthCam is using Alcatels pvServer to provide access to livecams in New Yorks Times Square and Londons Big Ben area. The great thing about this job is that once we found EarthCam I wasted a significant amount of time exploring the EarthCam site. We thought it might be a good way to check out the weather where were going next. Unfortunately, it seems people dont keep up their web camsespecially the DOT traffic cams. However, http://www.earthca.com/usa/ newyork/timessquare/ is strangely compelling. Do not ask us why.
Intervideo in the MPEG-4 game, too

Intervideo showed their codecs for mobile phones along with their H.264 codecs. (See story, p. 23.) The company also showed its H.264 video codec as a solution to receive streaming DMB content on mobile phones. While current DMB solutions are tailored to carrier-specific requirements at 15 frames per second in the Japan market, Intervideos H.264 solution aims at providing a real-time frame rate, 30 frames per second, to DMBready handsets for ODMs, system integrators, and carriers worldwide.
PacketVideo showcases a wide breadth of applications

Video is joining still camera as a must-have feature for cell phones, and San Diegobased PacketVideo Network Solutions (pvNS), a division of Alcatel and a pioneer in the field of video for handhelds, is finally getting a little wind in its sails as a result. As ARM 9based processors tend to become the baseline processor for mobile phones, PacketVideos software decoder, pvPlayer, has adequate running room. pvPlayer enables phones to handle video streaming, local video, and audio playback. Alcatel also offers pvServer as a complement to the pvPlayer.
Philips launches solution for TV on mobile

At Cannes, Philips Electronics announced it will deliver a System-inPackage (SiP) enabling TV on mobile in Q4 2005. The solution, based on the DVB-H standard, contains all the functionality of a complete digital TV receiver in an area the size of a thumbnail. It will, says Philips, enable consumers to connect to live TV, as well as pictures, movies, and music, all on the move. Facilitating the development of TV on mobile, Philips will roll out a small system board in Q2 2005 to support handset vendors participating in the next phase of DVB-H trials. This will be followed later in the year with a full SiP for DVB-H that, Philips says, will offer a reduced footprint and lower power consumption. Low power consumption will mean consumers will be able to watch TV for over 10 hours before needing to recharge their phone,
Tools
Streamezzo provides a software suite for operators, content providers, and device manufacturers to create, publish, and render multimedia content. The application puts together pvServer and it is hosted by Alcatels Mobile Kiosk. Orange has been particularly active in offering multimedia services. It is using the Alcatel pvNS for its Orange Video Platform, allowing customers to stream, download, and progressively download video and audio content on GPRS, EDGE, and 3G networks. The company showcased video blogs and mobile security enabling people to access a web came connected to a PC in the home.
Content
123Multimedia of France offers content through a variety of vehicles including WAP, i-Mode, and Java-based mobile Internet content services. The company is using Alcatels PacketVideo Network Solutions for their Live Tchatche TV channel on 2.5G and 3G devices. Beep Science is using version 2 of the OMA DRM specifications to offer a Rich Media DRM with the Alcatel pvServer. The Beep Science implemenVOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 FEBRUARY 28, 2005
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Security
Handset video cams linked to home cameras for security were a very popular app at 3GSM, and PacketVideo was an integral part of many of the demonstrations. In addition to the Orange demonstrations, China Resources Peoples Telephone Company Limited popularly known as Peoplesalso demonstrated its home surveillance service for home security, and with this announcement thoughts of other types of surveillance come to us unbidden. PerseusPhone is an application designed for security and it works with existing security cameras, CCTV systems, and DVRs. Perseus is using pvServer. Surelabs of Australia has a range of security products for home and corporate users. Surelabs combines support for simultaneous video streams, allowing users to attach several local cameras to a PC and also motion detection support. Using Surelabs technology, users can be alerted via email or mobile phone when intrusions are detected. The system uses Alcatel pvNS Transcoding Services Framework for live streaming. scanning by 3Gvision (see related story, next page). NTT DoCoMo has adopted PacketVideo for its FOMA mobile phones including the Mitsubishi D901i FOMA phone. The D901i mobile phone can capture 30 frames per second video on a 2.4-inch QVGA display. Mitsubishis phone is one of the new slide designs that debuted in 2004 and theyre showing up in peoples hands this year. Slide designs put the emphasis on the larger screens with keyboards that slide down when needed and slide up out of site and out of the way for media watching and game play. phone is compatible with the Terrestrial digital-multimedia-broadcast (TDMB) system, a broadcast system currently being rolled out in Korea. The new mobile phone is powered by a digital media processor, which was designed using the Tensilica Xtensa processor core and design environment. This puts the Korean consumer electronics giant ahead in emerging mobile broadcast market. The new LG phone allows consumers to watch TV programs while using normal dialing functions simultaneously. Other mobile devices, such as PDAs, have featured broadcast capabilities; however, this is the first small form factor device to feature broadcast capabilities as well as dialing functions. Dr. Choon Lee, vice president of LG, thinks mobile broadcasting is the next evolution in mobile product design and said, We should see tremendous growth in the coming year. He said that using the Xtensa processor and automated design environment allowed them to cut design time significantly and be first to market with this exciting new technology. Moreover, he added, we are now well positioned to take the lead in the fast-growing TDMB market. Based on its experience with this first SoC, LG has signed a second license for an Xtensa processor for their next-generation DMB-2 phone. Tensilica says their SoC can also be applied to notebook computers, PDAs, and car terminals, which could contribute to speeding the adoption of the TDMB standard. Tensilica was founded in July 1997 and claims it is the only company that has automated and patented the timeconsuming process of generating a customized microprocessor core along with a complete software development tool environment, producing new configurations in a matter of hours.
In other news
PacketVideo is riding along in Nokias new 6680 and 6630 phones, which got a rollout at 3GSM, as well as Motorolas a925 phones. All the phones feature synchronous two-way voice and video conversations and video conferencing, picture-in-picture, and call recording options. In truth, videophone calls on handhelds are still just a glimmer of an ambition for the industrybut the idea burns more feverishly in the brain of executives at PacketVideo. PacketVideo has teamed with semiconductor company DiBcom to accelerate DVB-H video. PacketVideo is now included in more than 60 designs. The companys software has been included in 17 million handsets shipped in 2004.
Barcode scanning
Another application we saw demonstrated at 3GSM and which is already in use in Asia is barcode scanning. Scanbuy in the U.S. is offering its Optical Intelligence product to read barcodes with camera phones. The camera phone can be used to capture the code to enable data to be read and decoded automatically; content would then be launched by pvServer. One of the scenarios suggested by Scanbuy is to use the barcodes to launch a trailer for a movie after reading them on DVDs or posters in a video store. Too bad video stores are going to go away. By the way, we also saw barcode
Tensilicas Xtensa processor in LG Electronicss T-DMB phone

Tensilica announced that LG Electronics has used the Xtensa configurable processor core to produce the worlds first mobile phone capable of receiving digital broadcast signals. The
Toshiba Mobile TV solution

In addition to the mysterious showing of a 3D chip in the Toshiba stand, there was an equally mysterious showing of some mobile TV solutions. The chipset shows solutions for ISDB-T and DVB-H. However, there was no one in the stand who could talk about it or who knew anything about it. Its almost as if someone snuck in and papered Toshibas walls when they werent looking.
FIGURE 5. Toshibas mobile TV solution. (Source: Toshiba)

23
IMAGERS & CODECS
IMAGERS & CODECS AT 3GSM

s anyone will tell you, camera phones have breathed new life and vigor into the handheld market. Mobile phones in particular are rivaling digital still cameras (DSCs) for functionality and convenience. Estimated at an installed base of over 200 million already, the market for these mid-range and high-end multimedia phones is growing at a fantastic rate, as illustrated in the accompanying chart from our recent report, Handheld Multimedia Devices. There is no question about the significant increase of worldwide camera phone shipments, which we expect to hit 730 million units by 2008 and with a 30% CAGR over the next four years. In 2004, worldwide camera phone shipments surpassed DSC and camcorder shipments combined. It has been reported that in Asia and Europe markets there are consumers who have never owned a PC or a DSC (if one can conceive of such a thing), and those people are now using camera phones to capture those special moments. At 3GSM there were new sensors, codecs (hard and soft), applications, and opinions about camera phones all over the place. In this section we report on a few that caught our attention.
FIGURE 1. Millions of multimedia phones shipped per year.

ing the phone upright, you could tilt it left or right and the paddle would slide to the left or right allowing you to line it up with the approaching ball. The motion detection of the phone uses the camera lens on the phone to register changes in physical position coordinates of the phone and consequently the position in the applicationit basically sees
(Source: Jon Peddie Research)
that youve moved the phone.
2D barcode reader
The company is also the developer of the Japanese mobile phone barcode reader. In Japan many magazines and catalogs use a square dot matrixencoded barcode pattern to store URLs and other data, as illustrated in Figure 2 (left). The next photo (Figure 3, next page) shows how one would read a page with a camera and then the phone could dial the phone number, or look up the web page. Other uses for a smart camera phone are sign translations, business card reader, and document scanning.
3GVision does optical tricks on phones

We were minding our own business while walking toward the Nvidia stand when an energetic Israeli stepped out in front of us and said, Bet you never saw a phone used as a mouse. He was right, I hadnt, but I had heard of it and was curious as to how it might work. I had envisioned laying the phone on the table with the camera pointing down, like an optical mouse, but thought that was stupid: A, because of the cost (real mice are cheaper), and B, because the focal length would be wrong. Turns out I was right on both accounts, and in for a surprise.
Intervideo MPEG-4 codecs for camera and 3G phones

Intervideo was at 3GSM, too, and announced that new-generation camera and 3G phones would be including its digital media broadcasting solution and MPEG-4 codecs running on advanced DSPs. Obviously the growth in camera phones (see Figure 1, above) caught Intervideos attention, and they applied their proven PC experience to the opportunity. Intervideo showed its MPEG-4 codecs with TIs DM on Cute Mobiles xcute DV1 phone. Cute Mobile is an ODM in Taiwan and has incorporated Intervideos codecs with their
The virtual joystick and mouse

Yossi Lev, the CTO of 3GVision, showed us a demo. The demo was a simple paddle game, and by hold-
FIGURE 2. Japanese 2D barcode patterns.

24
IMAGERS & CODECS

xcute cell phone and claims they can record real-time 30 frames per second video clips. Cute Mobiles xcute DV1 has a 3-megapixel camera with 4x optical zoom and TV-out capability that enables users to play DVD-quality video on the phone with output to an external television display. The company also has a unique video stabilization algorithm that allows consumers to record jitter-free video clips with ease (we demonstrated this at our CES EFT panel). As cell phones become smaller and smaller, this feature is highly appreciated by consumers. Intervideo says they provide individual video and audio codecs and multimedia editing applications on all major smartphone operating systems such as Linux, Windows Mobile, and Symbian.
FIGURE 3. Using
a mobile phone as a 2D barcode reader. (Photo:

Jon Peddie Research)
Micron announces two new CMOS image sensors

There are a half dozen or more image sensor manufacturers offering devices for the mobile phone market. Its a big market with about 200 million camera phones shipped in 2004, and it is Microns primary target market, followed by digital cameras (DSCs) as the chart below illustrates. One of the ways Micron plans on hitting those targets is by offering a superior sensor and SoC capabilities.
Good
That strategy can be exemplified by looking at their new MT9V112 SoC, and its little brother the MT9V012, both of which are being delivered to handset manufacturers throughout Asia, Europe, and the U.S. The VGA resolution sensors are in a 1/6-inch form factor and designed for the low-cost and small-size camera modules suitable for low- and mid-tier mobile handset models, as well as dualmode cameras and high-end 3G Smart phone models.
The 4 mm (diagonal) MT9V112 SoC sensor is a complete camera on a chip with a data rate of 13.5 megapixels/second (mpps) and a master clock of 27 MHz, leading Micron Imagings director of marketing, Dr. Farhad Rostamian, to state that all it requires is a power supply, lens, and clock source. The chips on-chip capabilities include an image flow processor that performs auto exposure, white balance, horizontal blanking, vertical blanking, color recovery and correction, sharpening, programmable gamma correction, on-the-fly defect identification and cor-
Auto/Medical
Units in millions 652 553 430
Microns Target Markets

3200 2500 2000 1500 975 550
Camera Phone Consumer Camera Auto, Medical
Security
Toys
Digital Camcorders/DV
PC Cameras
Digital Cameras
Camera Cell Phones

291 200 89
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
FIGURE 4. Microns market opportunities.

25
IMAGERS & CODECS

rection, zoom, windowing, and numerous other automatic functions. Rostamian says all the functions are programmable through a twowire serial interface and the chip is targeted primarily at cell phones, but is also appropriate for dualmode camera applications, PDAs, toys, and other battery-powered products. processes are high in poly and low in metal, just the opposite of logic fab processes. And, memory needs very low leakage currents, and is a process leading technology (90nanometer DRAM is being built now). The sensors need all that, but they dont need the latest fab. So when Micron moves memory to 90-nanometer, the imaging group gets a damn fine 130-nanometer fab thats fully depreciated-free. Low leakage is expressed in an imager as dark current and/or signal to noise ration (SNR), and Microns imagers are at the top of the class when to comes to that (hence the impressive demo). And, as we all know, mobile phones dont have flash units, so light sensitivity is a key factor.
At 3GSM, in a private meeting room, the company showed its newest part, the MT9D011, which Rostamian said is being sampled to manufacturers now. The new MT9D011 is a low-power 2-megapixel CMOS image sensor that uses Microns DigitalClarity technology, which offers exceptional performance capabilities in all lighting Best situations and, Rostamian points out, is able to accomplish this while Micron has also taken the 2 MP drawing very little current from the image sensor and embedded it in a power supply. SoC they designate the MT9D111. The MT9D011 is a 1/3-inch opWith the SoC Micron can now tical format sensor with 1,600H x offer lens shading correction, on1,200V active pixels, and is capathe-fly defect correction, interpolable of up to 15 frames per second FIGURE 5. Microns DigitalClarity high-sensitivity test. tion and edge detection, color and at full resolution and 30 frames (Source: Micron) aperture correction, three-channel per second at 800 x 600 resolugamma correction, image decimation, with programmable blanking. tion to any arbitrary size, and a It offers electronic rolling shutmeasurement engine with a collecter (ERS), global reset, windowing, tion of AF, WB, flicker, AE, and dark); a very impressive demo, to say and left-right and top-bottom frame rehistogram statistics. the least. (See Figure 5, above.) versal. It also integrates 2 x 2 binning The SoC also offers an auto focus How do they do it? Ah, well, thats and offers support for mechanical shutand lens actuator interface that offers: the secret sauce. One of the reasons Miter and efficient interfaces to flash techcron bought PhotoBit (a spinoff from Supports for five modes of AF operanologies. Additionally, the sensor offers JPL that started in 2000 and developed tions an embedded PLL and slew control I/O, PC cameras) in 2001 was to exploit its Snapshot, continuous video, both of which are programmable. fabs in other high-volume markets. As locked, focus-free, and manual Additional features enabling new it turns out, a CMOS memory process modes handset designs include an image flow is ideally suited to imagers. Memory processor, 10-bit on-chip ADC, color interpolation, and fast auto white balance with gray-scale detection providing better color across a wide range of lighting conditions. The sensitivity of this new sensor is phenomenal, and to demonstrate it, Mi cron set up a box, about 2 feet deep and a foot on each side and painted black inside, and they placed a color target at the far end. Then, they put two cameras next to each other at the mouth of the box and lit a small lamp. Both cameras LCDs showed the target. That was impressive enough, but then Rostamian turned out the light, and with the naked eye you could barely see the target; however, the MicronFIGURE 6. Micron MT9D111 block diagram. (Source: Micron) equipped target showed it brightly (while the other camera screen was
Better
26
IMAGERS & CODECS

Continuous focus adjustment to achieve maximum sharpness Programmable parameters Evaluation windows and weights Sensitivity (quickness of moving focus motor) Programmable rectangular waveform generator Interface with various lens actuators technologies Independently controlled output pads All thats great on paper, but the proof is when you take a picture. The Micron folks showed me two Ektachrome prints of images taken with the 2MP sensor and they were unbelievable. One of them is shown here (right), but the dpi of our printing process cant come close to the quality of these images. The company has also introduced a global reset function that can capture fast-moving pictures without distortion And and new function is pixel binning, which is a way of grouping pixels for lower resolution images. Rather than simply take the center pixels for, say, a VGA image, the MT9Dxii assigns four sensor pixels to one image pixel, which gives higher gain and faster image capture. This allows an arbitrary degree of decimation (CIF, QCIF, QVGA, QQVGA) with no loss of field of view, gives a smooth zoom (independently controlled along X and Y directions), and provides minimized aliasing by using 2D filtering. Micron will be applying their imagers to other applications like automotive (backup and lane changing), toys (e.g., EyeToy), and DSCs. If they succeed those depreciated fabs are going to be kept pretty busy.
FIGURE 7. Example image from Microns new MT9D111 2MP sensor.

hit the numbers. At 3GSM the company announced the OV7668, its first CameraChip with Standard Mobile Imaging Architecture (SMIA). Introduced by Nokia and STMicroelectronics in January 2004, SMIA is an imaging architecture especially suitable for mobile applications. With this new SMIA-compliant sensor, Omnivision hopes to expand its reach in the high-volume mobile handset market by opening up its products and OmniPixelT technology to a new customer base, and plans to introduce additional CMOS image sensors with higher resolutions and smaller form factors throughout 2005. The OV7668 CameraChip is a 1/5-inch low-voltage single-chip VGA CMOS image sensor, capable of directly interfacing with any SMIA-compliant host system. It integrates a 656 x 488 total image array, on-chip 10-bit A/D converter, camera control interface (CCI), and compact camera port (CCP2) interface. Additional features such as low operating voltage and low power consumption make the sensor well suited for embedded portable applications. The OV7668 is currently available in sample quantities. The company says its OmniPixel architecture significantly improves the light sensitivity of the sensor resulting in a higher signal-to-noise ratio, meaning
(Source: Micron)
Omnivision expands reach in camera phone market

Started in 1995, with TMSC as one of the founding investors, Omnivision has risen to a leading market position in the CMOS image sensor business, offering sensors for DSCs, PCs, and handhelds. In 2000 the company went public. Last year the company shipped between 60 and 70 million sensors into the camera phone market, and this year, with the phone market at a 200 million run rate, the company expects to hit the 90 to 100 million mark, which will get them close to 50% market share if they
the camera will perform better in low light situations. It also diminishes dark current to unnoticeable levels, an important factor in improving the performance of VGA CMOS image sensors. Jess Lee, Omnivisions director of product marketing, said, The addition of SMIA-compliant products to our portfolio presents important new business opportunities. Omnivision is a solutions-oriented company, so our OmniPixel comes with features such as auto-focus, zooming, panning, and mechanical shutter control. We asked Lee about the criticism levied by Micron (see preceding story) about using a logic process for image sensors. Omnivision is using TSMC, a logic fab. It is Microns contention that memory fabs are better suited to the task of making sensors. Lee told us that he had heard that comment, and that the company is working with the fab to overcome logic fab issues. Judging from their recent announcements, they seem to have figured something out. The company has just introduced its OV5610, a 5-megapixel image sensor. The company says it has eight design wins in the DSC and video camera markets. According to Omnivision, these design wins are the first uses of a 5-megapixel CMOS image sensor to process both still and video images in mass market consumer devices.
27
IMAGERS & CODECS

The sensors 2.775-micron pixels allowed Omnivision to design its 5-megapixel device with an optical format (footprint) of just 1/1.8 inch. It incorporates a 2592 x 1944 image array and an on-chip 10-bit A/D converter capable of 30 frames per second in VGA resolution. Omnivision says their sensor technology utilizes advanced algorithms to cancel fixed-pattern noise (FPN), eliminate smearing, drastically reduce blooming, and virtually eliminate dark current.
Realeyes3D introduces scan service for camera phones

Realeyes3D, claiming to be the pioneer of handwritten messaging and provider of camera-based embedded applications and wireless services for camera phones, launched their Digitizer3 (Digitizer cubed) at 3GSM. The company says it is the first camera phone document scanner service that enables highresolution camera phone users to scan and send a copy of any document instantly to a fax machine or to an email account. The first version of Digitizer3 is available for Series60 smartphone users. Other versions will be released soon, including a Windows Mobile Edition as well as clientless versions to address the need for a document scanner service with the business user. Realeyes3D thinks their Digitizer3 is particularly suited to business users who want to capture and transmit documents while on the go, or to those who may not have a multi-function printer/scanner nearby, thereby achieving unprecedented mobile productivity for high-value data users. For example, purchase orders can be sent immediately from the field, for instant procurement. Claim forms can be sent on-the-spot for fast processing. Whiteboard meeting notes can be stored for future use, and notebooks can be captured to use in professional office applications. Maps or diagrams can be sent from the field to the office, so that work can start back there before the professional gets back to the office. And students can copy pages in reference books for their own use without having to wait in line for the next available copy machine (or actually buy the book). Based on patented technologies developed over several years by Realeyes3D, Digitizer3 implements a technology mix that the company says overcomes the
FIGURE 8. Liquid lens construction. (Source: Philips)
challenges of real-world optical document acquisition, and does it simply and quickly. Based on its experience in advanced image-processing technologies applied to mass-market applications, such as its handwritten messaging suite, Realeyes3D claims it has managed to circumvent regular everyday challenges such as poor lighting or shadows on the original document.
content, and navigating through menus themselves.
Water lenses
Two companies, Philips and Varioptic, spoke about a novel technique for changing the focus of a lens, based on deforming a water droplet, a liquid lens. Copying the principle of the human eye, which focuses on objects at different distances by contracting and expanding muscles attached to the lens (the muscles change the shape of the lens and alter its focal length), the liquid lens uses electrostatic forces to alter the shape of a drop of slightly salty water inside a glass cylinder 3 millimeters in diameter and 2.2 millimeters long. One end of the cylinder points toward the image plane; the other is directed at the subject being imaged. (See diagrams, figures 8 and 9.) The cylinder containing the water drop is filled with oil. Around the inside walls of the cylinder is a water-repellent Teflon-like coating, and behind this coating is an electrode. Basically, the water and the oil make up the lens, and the shape of the interface between the twothe meniscusdetermines its focal length. Changing the voltage on the electrode changes the shape of the interface and alters the focal length of the lens. The lens exploits surface-tension characteristics of fluids. The surface of a column of water in a clean glass cylinder forms a bowl-shaped meniscus. Because the molecules in the glass at-
V-Enable phones mice

V-Enable calls their technology the Motion Interface Engine, or Motion. Motion can be used in the air and doesnt require a solid surface in order to register any position change and enables users to access, navigate, and interact with content in new and interesting ways. The company says their new software application is designed to turn any camera-equipped mobile phone into a mouse. (See 3Gvision story, p. 23.) The company says developers can create applications using Motion technology, because the application can be either pre-installed by handset manufacturers or over-the-air (OTA) installed by users on to existing handsets. The application requires no other hardware or software to be installed on the phone, and any camera phone can be used, irrespective of camera resolution. For some games Motion is a natural fit, allowing you to physically swing your putt, drive your favorite racing car, or play a simple puzzle game. Other possible applications include playing music, navigating maps and other wireless data
28
IMAGERS & CODECS

tract water molecules, the liquid surface curves upward near the clean cylinder wall. If the glass is greasy, the water surface curves downward near the wall, because grease repels water. At the center of the meniscus, the water surface is nearly flat because of gravity. Without gravity the water surface would be sphericalthe ideal shape for a focusing lens. In our lens, the effect of gravity is canceled by keeping the drop small and covering it with oil. The result is a water-to-oil interface whose shape will hold with any orientation of the cylinder but can be changed by a voltage on the surrounding electrode. So how good are these lenses? The optical power of a lens is specified in diopters, a measure of how much the lens can bend light (the dioptric value of a lens is proportional to the inverse of the radius of curvature of the lens in meters); the closer objects are to a lens, the more the lens must bend the light to bring them into focus. So when an object is far away, a lens needs less optical power to bring it into focus than it does when the object is near. The strength of eyeglasses is also expressed in diopters. So, for example, eyeglasses of +2 increase the optical power of the eye by 2 diopters, allowing the wearer to see things that are close. The optical power of the liquid lens can vary over a range of 150 diopters. If it were the same size as a human lens, its optical power range would be about 50 diopters12 times as large as the optical power of the human eye, which has a range of about 4 diopters. The liquid lens changes its focus by changing its optical power through the change of the water drops radius of curvature with voltage on the electrode. When fully commercialized and put into production, this liquid lens has the potential to offer a fantastic small, variable focus lens for cameras and mobile phones. And, auto focus is one of the major drawbacks of mobile phone cameras.
When can I have one?

Butwill it ever be commercialized? That may be in the hands of the lawyers. Sigh. It seems Varioptic, which was started in 2002 by Bruno Berg, has some patents on the liquid lens concept that Berg and Jrme Peseux developed at the Universit Joseph Fourier, in St. Martin dHres, France. Benno Hendriks and Stein Kuiper of Philips, of
course, think theyve invented it, or a version of it, both companies tracing their developments back to Christopher Gorman and his colleagues at Harvard University, who made the first variable-focus lens in 1995. As soon as this gets worked out we can expect to see a breakthrough in auto-focus lenses on mobile phones that will truly exploit the megapixel sensors that are going into production.JP
capabilities.
FIGURE 9. Liquid lens bending

(Source: Philips)
29
SOFTWARE & GAMES
SOFTWARE & GAMES AT 3GSM
Gameloft
In the Gameloft stand I found the companys catalog of games, and a new (unannounced) Verizon phone ames are not comrunning a new (to mobile ing to handhelds, phones) first-person shooter. theyre here. Or at Ive had my doubts about least they were at playing an FPS on the tiny the 3GSM conference. We screen, but when I picked up saw great stuff in most of the the phone I found that I was media processor suppliers playing it almost immedistands, and also on the delivately. The phone (see picture, ery and developers stands. left) is a comfortable palm The game market for size, and the screen looks to handhelds is a hotly contestbe QVGA. The control pated market. So far, next to dial FIGURE 1. Gameloft tern was 2-4-6-8 for up-lefttones, game downloads are on new LG right-back, and the left right the leading application gen- VX8000 Verizon cursor keys were rotate, with erator for the handset mar- phone. (Photo: Jon the OK button for firing. ket, and it is believed that Peddie Research) The button layout was games have a lot longer runtruly intuitive and natural, ning room. Dial tones are the game play smooth, and the Gameloft what you do when your phone wont do people told me it was all software, no anything else. HW accelerator, but the person I spoke And, this is a propitious time for to didnt know what processor. games. 3D has come into its own on The good news is real 3D games consoles but there is a slight stall in the are really coming to the mobile phone. market as consumers wait for the next Gameloft introduced Splinter Cell, generation of consoles. The PC, on the a Java-based game, early last year, but other hand, has GPUs and processors the phones I saw it on werent up to capable of handling the best that games the taskthe graphics looked chunky can throw at them. Most interesting, and the game play was poor. But with we think, is anecdotal evidence that the newer phones, even Java games are the demographics are finally changing, looking good. with more women showing an interest in games. Interestingly enough, the facet of games thats drawing women in Superscape buys and sells is the social aspectthe ability to play Wed be hard-pressed to find a comgames online with people and in LAN pany who has redefined itself and enparties, etc. Oddly enough, womens interest in playing games does not seem to be affected by the addition of pink-and-purple color schemes or less, play dress-up topics. (Why doesnt anyone listen to us? we ask fruitlessly.) To get back to the point, mobile gaming makes even more sense in some instances than console or PC gaming. Its there when you need it and the industry is evolving with communications at the very heart of the technology. At 3GSM, Java has a firm hold on the games world with its ability to offer basic playon-anything games as well as impressive 3D games by virtue of Javas alliance with FIGURE 2. Screen detail of Verizon VX8000 phone with OpenGL ES. Gameloft FPS. (Photo: Jon Peddie Research)
tered more new businesses than Superscape. The company has a habit of getting overly enthusiastic and thus it found itself in the arcade business, in 3D content creation, in VRML, in the Avatar business, in persistent worlds, and in games for handhelds. The company is also pretty brilliant when it comes to building the tools it needs to enter these new markets. In the handheld space the company is developing on the JSR 184 standard The companys Swerve technology enables the development of 3D games, which can be run on its Server Client, a software engine that lives on the mobile device. In addition, Superscape offers developers the Swerve Studio development tool. Lately the company has redefined itself yet again to become a game publisher as well as a tools provider. The company demonstrated a variety of games
FAST FACTS
Superscape notes that in the last year and half of so, 2D mobile gaming adds incremental revenue of $3-$10 per customer Strategy Analytics and ARC Group suggest that over-the-air Java games will account for 80% of the revenues from wireless gaming.
in its booth and it also was showcased in partner booths including Qualcomm and Intel. Superscape has developed several titles for Qualcomms Brew platform including 3D AMF Bowling licensed by Vir2L Studios, 3D Evel-ution licensed by Global Wireless Entertainment (GWE), and 3Dswerve Basketball. Intel showcased 3D Evel Knievel, AMF Xtreme Bowling, Fight Club based on the movie of the same name, and Independence Day also based on the movie. Both movies are 20th Century Fox Films. The games were demonstrated on Intels XScale Microarchitecture with Intel Wireless MMX. The company was showing its Xtreme Bowling, Street Hoops (licensed by Activision), Fight Club, Alien versus Predator, Independence Day, Harlem Globetrotters, and Evel Knievel
30
SOFTWARE & GAMES

running on the new Motorola V980, E1000, and E680 handsets as well as the S65 from Siemens. It really helps to play these games in order to appreciate the capabilities of Java these days. At least one of us was harrumphing about how Java is not adequate for compelling game play and at least one of us admitted he was wrong. This latest path for Superscape is no easier than its earlier business plans, but the company is seeing returns on its efforts. In 2004 the company reported revenues of 1.1, and while this is a slight decline from the previous year, the company notes that all the revenues were derived from products for the wireless sector. Over the year Superscape has signed licensing agreements with Disney, Sony Digital Pictures Mobile, Activision, 20th Century Fox, and GWE. In addition, the company has signed deals for the Swerve engine with Samsung, Siemens, and Motorola and for elements of its 3D engine to be incorporated in products from Qualcomm, Microsoft, Intel, Texas Instruments, and Savaje. David Brittain, technology lead at Superscape, told us their portfolio of
MOBILE TRENDS
VIDEOIts pretty obvious to anyone who has tried to carry on a videophone call using their PC that videophones still have a few kinks to work out. Thats just as true for handset as it is for PC-enabled applications. However, handsets will have one advantage, and that is once everyone has a video-enabled handset (or at least anyone youd want to see on the phone), and once various protocols have been agreed on, there is a lot less fuss involved in videophone calling via handset. Theyre big ifs, but were talking less gear and more motivation. For us, its not so much a matter of being able to look at each other while you talk but finally being able to say, Look at this while youre on the phone and actually show someone the really great hotel room you somehow managed to score or the spectacularly bad dcor in the restaurant. Nokia and TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) are the first to announce a video-sharing service in Italy. It will roll out in the second quarter of 2005. MUSICMotorola has made the biggest splash in its agreement with Apple for an iTunes-enabled phone, the E1060. At Cannes, however, there were plenty of other big-name announcements for music on handsets. Nokia, the biggest, as a matter of fact announced a deal with Loudeye and Microsoft for music downloads. Also big is Sony Ericcson, and that companys phones will get a marketing boost with the addition of the Walkman moniker to their musically enabled phones. CAMERASOkay, so cameras are yesterdays news, but the cameras adorning new phones are over 1 megapixel and include features such as autofocus, flash, slide protection, etc. The most obvious difference is that several of the new phones look a lot more like cameras than they do phones. MACHINE TO MACHINE (M2M)A few years ago, IBM showed us commercials in which chic Italians used their phones to get soft drinks from a machine. It looks like well start getting those capabilities pretty soon though were not real sure what role IBM will play in it all. Japans NTT DoCoMo rolled out the P506iC Phone Wallet as we write this. The phones include an embedded chip that enables users keep cash in handso to speak. Asia is way ahead, already offering customers an infrastructure based on smartcards that lets users get cash-and-swipe taxis, subway turnstiles, etc. The Phone Wallet is just a short step. Another example is the ability to access and even control security cameras with a mobile phone as being implemented by Alcatel. Orange and Siemens introduced M2M infrastructure at 3GSM.
But, TIs exec Gilles Delfassy just sniffed at machine-tomachine technology at their press conference, saying that he didnt see the business potentialsounds like TI is still working on this one.
MARKET EVOLUTIONCurrently, most users buy their handsets from operators. According to researchers Informa Telecoms and Media Group, the telecom industry will change the way it approaches customers and customers will start going through retail channels for handsets and services including games, ringtones, music, etc. In addition, suppliers will also increasingly sell to consumers directly.
the crowd-pleasing capability that has taken phone manufacturers by surprise is based on Session Initiation Protocol. The 3GPP, GSMA, and various other standards bodies have gotten the idea and standards are being hammered out to enable new applications. Siemens demonstrated capabilities such as sending pictures and mobile phone chat rooms. Other applications include video sharing, voice instant messaging, and gaming. Together with the GSMA, 13 companies including Belgacom, Cable & Wireless, Ericsson, KPN, MM02, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, SFR, Siemens, Telenor, TeliaSonera, and Vodafone have pledge to actively promote interoperability for SIP-based services.
PUSH-TO-TALK-AND-ANYTHING-ELSE-YOU-CAN-THINK-OF
SEAMLESS SYNCHINGThe ability to live within an email and office productivity environment is an obvious advantage, but for a while at least were going to be working within islands of productivity. One approach is to go with the environment most people live inWindows and Nokia took that step with support for Microsofts ActiveSynch. A better approach would be interoperability through open standards. Thats what OMA hopes to achieve with its standards (see related article, p. 4). 4GEven though it seems like its taking forever to get 3G rolled outand it isthere are people who are paid to figure out how to make us want 4G. So far, 4G is not a defined set of technologies but rather a lineup of thoroughbred technologies that could get us to high-speed, interconnected, seamless communications. Among them is WiMax, favored by Intel, and variations on HSPDA from the 3GPP and OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing). Flarion is among the 4G companies waiting for its time to come. The company has developed FlashOFDM for broadband telecommunications.
31
SOFTWARE & GAMES

games is or will be available on many well-known global networks including Verizon, China Mobile, Vodafone, Cingular, Sprint, TMobile, and Telefonica as well as nearly 70 smaller regional operators. Terminator, Golden Tee, and Rollerblade. The companys own titles include Shado Fighter and the IF racing series. The company already has deals with Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, the Vodafone group, the Orange group, TIM, Telefonica Moviles, and China Mobile.
HI Corp
HI Corp had their Mascot 3D engine running in games from Bandai (3D Polygames), Capcom (Resident Evil), Namco (Ridge Racer), and Taito (Densya De Go! 3D), to name a few. They also were on display in Imagination Technologiess stand running on a TI OMAP2 (see TI story, p. 3). HI Corp is bragging that they own 100% market share of games on phones in Japan now, and that V# and V$ are 100% 3D games. As admirable as all that is, its both good news and bad news. It means HI cannot expand their market in Japan (on mobile phones) and will only grow at about the same rate as the high-end mobile phones grow; however, were predicting that will be pretty good growth. But it also means HI has to be more aggressive in the international market if they want to grow more rapidly.
Nokia and Macromedia team up for Series 60

Macromedia has been early in the handheld market by virtue of DIRECTOR OF SALES AND MARKETING at Philips having an established ecosystem of developers and APIs for developers, Software Cees Geel (left) and Mikael handset manufacturers, and carri- Honkavaara shake hands on new ers. Macromedias Flash, as a vector- relationship between Hybrid and Philips. based graphics technology, is power- (Photo: Jon Peddie Research) ing games and graphics, especially graphics in Asian handsets. Flash is being used to design custom interThe Chart tracks downloads from mofaces as well as applications. bile operators O2, Orange, T-Mobile, As so often happens in the high-tech and Vodaphone. The games that made world, Japan finds its own way of doing the cut are Racing Fever 2, Mafia it. NTT DoCoMo has created a market Wars, and Street Soccer. Digital with its own applications, a distinctive Chocolate proudly notes that Sumea is look, a thriving ecosystem, and a distrithe only game brand with three titles bution system that thrives on mini-payon the list. ments. Macromedia and its softwarebased Flash technology has been made Philips and Hybrid collaborate to order for this stage of the industry. Flash came on to the scene with a to extend 3D to phones good-sized army of developers already Philips and Hybrid have announced driving the rest of us crazy with blinkthat Hybrids implementation of Opening and flashing whirlies in the HTML GL ES will be integrated into Philips Jworlds. They were ideal for the handset Ware Java software for mobile devices. market in Japan, and Hello Kitty has a Philips will also be the global distributor new lease on life, thanks to Flash anifor Hybrids 3D graphics solutions. As a mation. result of the agreement, phones will gain At 3GSM Nokia and Macromedia advanced 3D capabilities without reannounced a deal for the Series 60 platquiring new hardware. At the same time form, giving Macromedia even more graphics accelerators, with support for handsets in its lineup of Flash-enabled OpenGL ES and JSR 184, will be able to phones. offer handheld games with console quality. Hybrid points out that Vodafone, Digital Chocolate makes its bid Orange, and T-Mobile already have the Java J2ME M3G (JSR 184) standard in Last year California-based Digital their 2005 specifications. Chocolate, one of the latest brain chilThere are over 600 million Javadren from digital entrepreneur Tripp enabled phones. Most of these phones Hawkins, acquired Finnish game develoffer simple games. Java gets a boost opers Sumea. The company has specialwith the addition of OpenGL ES. ized in developing games for the handThe use of Open Standards opens set market. the door for developers, phone manuIt is Digital Chocolates idea to create facturers, and customers to meet on compelling games and sell them through neutral ground. Games can be develonline portals. oped for the platform and distributed The company is finding success by carriers, but just as important, they through traditional channels as well. can be distributed by outside distribuAccording to the Official Mobile Games tors as well opening up the market beJava Download Chart, maintained by yond the carriers who have been slow the entertainment and Leisure Software to offer a variety of applications beyond Publishers Association (ELSPA), three ringtones. Sumea games have made the Top 10 list.
In-Fusio
At Cannes, In-Fusio announced that it has kicked the door open in Europe with deals with the Orange Group as well as LG. LG Electronics has signed a deal with In-Fusio to specify the EGE (Entertainment and Gaming Extensions). As a result of the deal, LG will launch EGE-enabled handsets in Europe at the end of Q2 2005, giving operators the option of specifying EGE for LG handsets. The Orange Group is the first to specify EGE for their phones from LG. In-Fusios CEO Gilles Raymond says the company expects to see several other operators fall into place in the near future, saying his company is in advanced negotiations with a number of top-tier handset manufacturers and operators. In-Fusio says their games are being played by 15 million gamers worldwide through 130 operators and portals across all handheld platforms, including Java, ExEn, Brew, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and i-Mode. The company has a portfolio of 90 games that includes licensed properties such as Microsofts Midtown Madness 3 Mobile and Zoo Tycoon 2 Mobile, Comedy Centrals South Park, Universal Studios ET, and Canal Studio Images The
32
Philips J-Ware is in widespread use on mobile phones alreadywe believe the number is more than 30 million and it is growing. J-Ware is an efficient JVM that is delivering impressive performance on 100-MHz ARM 9 machinesthe sweet spot for mobile.
Quantum3D Expedition VR with a gun

By Jon Peddie
any good ideas are born before their time and have to wait for technology to catch up with them. Ross Smith isnt really that patient a guy, but he is a guy with a vision and a passionlike many of us he loves 3D and secretly loves VR. Secretly, because its no longer in fashion to say the VR word. Hes also a pragmatist. He and a bunch of like-minded friends spun Quantum3D out of 3Dfx in April 1997 to exploit the high performance of the Voodoo3 chipset for simulation systems, big rack-mounted affairs that create big wall-sized images, and challenged SGI and E&S for such projectsand, dare I say, kind of introduced the COTS concept to the sim world. Quantum3D, under Smiths tutelage, pursued various interesting usages of their 3Dfx and then Nvidia technology, and one of them was miniaturization of a sim system that could be put on a vehicle or even on a person. Needless to say, in the process of doing all this R&D they also developed some clever packaging and ruggedness technology.

ArcSoft displays its usual inventiveness at 3GSM

ArcSoft is best known for its imaging software including its stitching software. ArcSoft is headquartered in Fremont, CA, but its development roots are in Asia, and the company is continuously inventive. To prove it, the company showed off its line of software products for mobile phones and is probably anticipating the market by a couple of years. At 3GSM the company showed: VideoImpression Mobile Edition software that allows users to capture, edit, and play video clips. Video can be trimmed and combined with other segments. Animated titles and credits can be added and instantly viewed and shared via Bluetooth, email, or MMS. The product supports H.263 and MPEG-4 and file formats ASF, 3GP, MPR; PCM, ADPCM, MP3, and AMR. PhotoPrinterAllows the phone to control photo size, paper size, page layout, and orientation and then print to printers equipped with Bluetooth, Infrared, and PictBridge printers. ArcSoft FacePlate CreatorThis is a great one. Designed for customizable Nokia phones, the FacePlate creator offers templates that let you use a favorite to create a skin and even cut out a strategic part for the phones wallpaper to show through. We think that is so cool we almost went out phone shopping. TotalMedia Mobile Companion Convert and share content including videos, photos, and music between PCs and mobile phones. The software handles the conversion and also file transfers. Where would we be without companies willing to invent cool stuff even before anyone really knows they want such things?
So it wasnt too big a surprise, to me anyway, when Quantum won the soldier-worn synthetic environment training prototype system under Phase I of a contract with the U.S. Army last year. In fact, you might say this was a amalgamation of visions, resources, and focus of several years combining Quantum3Ds acquisition of GC2, Rosss background and love for gaming and VR, Moores Law, and the Armys need for better training programs. And then they started work on Phase II of the study commissioned by the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Commands (RDECOM) Embedded Training for Dismounted Soldier (ETDS) Science and Technology Objective (STO). The Phase II research efforts were concentrated in the area of providing embedded mission rehearsal capabilities to the soldier. And so Expedition was born (and Im not talking about that oversized truck Ford makes and sells to soccer moms). Based on technology developed by CG2 and Quantum3D, Expedition is

FIGURE 1. The ultimate gaming system.

(Source: Quantum3D)
33
a development and deployment system compatible with popular gamingbased training software such as Americas Army and Forterra. Expedition is a wireless, immersive, self-contained, wearable, open-architecture COTS platform. The location or environment is synthetic. As soldiers move their head or body in the real world, these motions are happening in the synthetic environment, which is running on Thermite classic VR, no? Synthetic Environment (SE) Interaction Expedition features a correlated motion and input system that Smith says can enable users to move through and control the SE view by just turning their heads and/or bodies, or kneeling, standing, or going prone (although, with all that gear, getting un-prone might be challenging for some who hadnt just gone through basic training). To turn left or right, up or down, users rotate their bodies (or heads) in the real world. Users can then translate through the SE using a weapon-mounted thumb-operated joystick controller
FIGURE 2. What the soldier sees.

(Source: Quantum3D)
quickly and economically develop and deploy embedded training and mission rehearsal capabilities for dismounted and mounted infantry and first responder applications. Expedition integrates a binocular OLED helmet-mounted display (HMD) technology from eMagin, with a corre-
FIGURE 3. Embedded Training Development
and Deployment Platform Running Quantum3D Lightspeed. (Source: Quantum3D)
to move forward/back and translate left/right. In addition to a conventional SE image-generation software, the system includes Quantum3Ds Lightspeed, which is used in the RDECOM Distributed Advanced Graphics Generator and Embedded Rehearsal System (DAGGERS) Program. The company showed off the new system at the AUSA (Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) Winter Conference in Fort Lauderdale while the rest of us were in France looking at mobile phones; hard to say who was having more fun. Expedition, says Smith, enables training system providers and researchers to
lated three degree-of-freedom head/leg/ weapon motion tracker system, a M4A1 training weapon with a Quantum3D (patent-pending) wireless weapon input controller, Quantum3D Thermite Tactical Visual Computer, and load-bearing vest with accessories. All this creates a compact, embedded training system with surround sound and voice command, weapon-mounted synthetic environment scene and motion control, and IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN for coordinated squad-level interaction. Together these components provide what Smith calls an ergonomic
immersive real-time 3D environment that enables infantry and paramilitary personnel to interact with realistic synthetic environments and training scenarios. Other Expedition components include lithium ion batteries and charger, IEEE 801.11 access point, and modified M4A1 training weapon with standard Picatinny/NATO 1913 rail-mounted accessories. Expedition is compatible with Windows XP, IEEE 802.11, Open GL 1.3, DirectX and most other training and simulation industry standards. At the core of Expedition is Thermite TVC-1.0, Quantum3Ds wearable, battery-powered COTS real-time visual computer that features low-power mobile CPU technology and an embedded graphics subsystem equipped with an Nvidias GeForceFX Mobile GPU. For sensor, camera, and video functions, Thermite also includes video-capture and video-out functionality, with support for color space conversion, scaling, and overlays for NTSC, PAL, S-Video, and RS-170A formats. I would like to see Quantum3D or the Army show this at Siggraphs Emerging Technology exhibit; it could be listed as the worlds only viable VR system. However, these nifty toys wont be showing up in many living rooms for a while; with a starting price of $45,000 I expect only Paul Allen and Richard Branson will have one at home.
Quantum3D Thermite TVC-1.0.

(Source: Quantum3D)
FIGURE 4.
34
NEWS WATCH NEWS WATCH NEWS WATCH NEWS WATCH NEWS WATCH NEWS WATCH
ASRock jumps into graphics
Motherboard manufacturer ASRock has added graphics boards to its lineup. The company will manufacture approximately 100,000 boards in the second half of 2005 using both Nvidia and ATI chips.
3Dlabs new Wildcat Realizm 800

A New PCIe offering from 3Dlabs was announced last week. The Wildcat Realizm 800 is a PCIe 16x card equipped with Independent dual video processing units and a single VSU with 640-MByte GDDR3 total memory; the RAMDAC clock speed runs at 400 MHz. The Realizm 800 has 32 programmable 36-bit floating-point vertex shaders, which support up to 1K instructions and up to 32 light sources. The 3Dlabs AIB comes with support for OpenGL 2.0, OpenGL 1.5, and Microsoft DirectX 9.0. Physically the board can support two displays with dual-link DVIs, and it features a HDTV encoder. The 800 Realizm is a 16x lane PCI Express, single-slot card; however it occupies two slots due to the oversized cooling solution. The maximum screen resolution offered by the Realizm 800 is 3840 x 2400; the card will be available in June 2005. The Wildcat Realizm is targeting the high end of the market, with the Realizm 200 and 100 AGP 8X versions aimed at the mainstream.
Avid updates Alienbrain Studio 7.1

Game development represents a major segment of the tools market. There are over 300 companies that call themselves game development companies, for an estimated $21.5 billion. That might give you an idea why there is so much interest in the game development market. A year after the acquisition of German company NXN, Avid has introduced a new version of the Alienbrain asset management software. The software is integrated in the Avid pipeline and is a key part of the companys strategy to create an environment for content development professionals. Alienbrain has been used by several high profile game development companies and gives Avid an entre for its Softimage product as well. Unlike traditional asset management programs, Alienbrain was designed to be part of the creative process allowing collaboration in addition to tracking. Avid also hopes to make its Softimage product a more integral part of the creative process as well by integrating Alienbrain into the Softimage interface. Gregor vom Scheidt manages the Alienbrain product line and says the company has also improved interaction
Palint buys Gainward

TNC Industrial (Taiwan) is selling its Gainward brand and its European branch, Gainward Europe GmbH, to Palit Microsystems for US$1M. TNC holds a 69% stake in Gainward.
Cirrus enables $100 DVD recorders

Does it seem to you that the price wars over DVD recorders got started even before the first device shipped? If youll remember those days in the not too distant past, companies were dropping prices on their product announcements before the products even shipped. Cirrus has taken the initiative to announce price drops before the products are even introduced with its latest reference design for DVD recording products coming in at less than $100. Cirruss new design supports both DVD +R/RW and DVD-R/RW. Cirrus says that this ability to support the two major formats eases compatibility problems for consumers. The company also claims to have improved ease of use with support for RWPPI (RW Products Promotion Initiative) standard, which is an interoperability standard that allows DVD recorders to record content in the DVD and play it on another RWPPI player without finalizing it. The platform also includes a graphical user interface that helps users as they setup to record and connect to other devices. It all adds up, we suppose. DVD has been a little harder to use because of the various formats, but we think users are quite capable of figuring out the finalization requirements, especially with decent software interfaces. Cost has certainly contributed to the slow uptake for DVD recorders, but consumers also have to be convinced they really need all that capacity.
More than asset management, Alienbrain enables creatives to collaborate in the creation of assets as well as find them after the fact.
35
NEWS WATCH NEWS WATCH NEWS WATCH NEWS WATCH NEWS WATCH NEWS WATCH
with other products as well. The program is designed to help creative people in remote locations work together efficiently. Alienbrain has been used most extensively in game development. Customers include Sony, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, and Infogrames. Alienbrain is available in several configurations$690 for Developer Client, $1,250 for Designer Client, and $2,190 for Manager Client.
CHIPSET MODEL NAME/SPECS Support CPU type Graphic card interface Gigabyte LAN network controller Integrated SATA controller Integrated USB2.0 controller Support RAID function MuTIOL 1G SIS756/965 Support AMD Athlon64 FX and Opteron CPU PCI Express X16 Support 10/100/1000Mbps LAN Function Support four SATA Ports Support 8 USB 2.0 Ports Support RAID 0, 1, 0+1, and JBOD Provide high efficient connection with 1 GByte/ second bandwidth between north bridge and south bridge chipsets HyperStreaming Technology
SIS supports both HyperTransport and PCI Express with SiS756 chip
Where there is confusion there is opportunity, and SiS has found just such a situation in the AMD world. SiS says that it has demonstrated that the SiS756 can enable all 16 of its PCI Express lanes and also support HyperTransport 1-GHz high-speed transfer. The chipset is designed for AMDs 64bit processors. With the success of its tests, the company says its SiS756 is the only chipset that can fully support both buses. Competitive products, says SiS, cant actually access all 16 PCI Express lanes rather they fall back to 8. Other products could not reach HyperTransport speeds of 1 GHz. SiS uses its MuTIOL 1-GHz technology to connect north and south bridges. (Got to love this, no? No names, please. We all know who these mystery competitors areor at least getting people to guess is a lot safer than making accusations.) The SiS756 north bridge pairs with the SiS965 south bridge and enables two PCI-E X1, gigabit LAN, eight USB 2.0 ports, AC 97 7.1 channel sound, and four SATA and four PATA devices. The SiS965 also supports SATA Multiple RAID disk array modes in RAID0, 1, 0+1, and JBOD.
SiS proprietary technology
FEATURES OF SISS 756/965 chipset.

icsdual pipeline graphics through a 128-bit 2D/3D engine and shared DDR memory and the Chromotion CE Video display engine with MPEG-2 decoding. The chipset includes support for an external 8X port for the addition of optional graphics processor upgrades for notebooks that support the capability.
ITS ALL ABOUT THE PIXEL Continued from back page

console. You have a different intent, a different attitude, and a different setting. For me anyway, the PC is the most intimate. Im in my comfy faux-Aeron chair, with vibrating heating pad and water bottle side-cup holder, my nose is about eight inches from the screen (except when Im ducking or pushing the chair backwards to get out of a line of fire)I am in intimacy with the program, and in such a condition I expect something in return. That means I have to care about the characters, I want to know where the story line is taking us, and I want to try to suspend disbelief i.e., I dont want to see the great graphics and effects, I want to be one with the game. On a PC I can often do that; and, FYI BTW, the graphics dont have to be outstanding to accomplish it. On a game console its different. I dont get as intimate; there may even be someone else in the room with me. Im distracted with conversationits not just me and the game, its us and our real lives or the ones wed like to have. Now the graphics have to be great, because Im in a distracting environment and need all the help I can get to get into the game.
VIA announces K8N800A chipset

VIAs latest chipset is designed for the AMD Turion 64 Mobile processor and will enable the design of thin and light notebooks. It will also work just fine with AMDs Mobile Athlon 64 and Mobile Sempron processors. (Is it just us or is the use of names that mean absolutely nothing gotten completely out of control?) The question is, what does VIA bring to the party? VIAs new chipset features its S3 UniChrome Pro graph-
A handheld is neither of the above. It will be used in the most distracting environment, and it will not be capable of great graphics. Ill most likely be on a train or in an airport waiting lounge, Ill be very distracted by whats going one, and my vision will be wide open to other events. Story-schmorywho cares? Im just killing time and aliens. Characterswho cares? This is about me twitching my thumbs as fast as I can. I dont have time to get interested in characters, I have to find a health pack. And if its a remake of a game Ive played, no problem, makes it easier for me to get through it. Im not alone on the train, Im with an old friend. Games on phone, you betcha. Give it to me now, baby.
ITS ALL ABOUT THE PIXEL

by Dr. Jon G. Peddie
Games on handheldsnever happen

hats how I was feeling. I had just nished Doom 3. It took me a little longer than most folks because I interrupted myself to play Half-Life 2 and then interrupted that to play at Halo 2, having totally given up on Far Cry. Dont expect to see these games on your phone any time soon. The graphics/art work and 3D models in Doom 3 were, to say the least, spectacular. A little better than Half-Life 2 and lots better than Far Cry, despite all the hype about Far Crys water (which was indeed good). Half-Life 2 got my vote for best street scenes, but then Doom 3 didnt have any street scenes. Halo 2 has been a disappointment, a simple makeover, and its hard to understand why it took so long to produce. Basically if you played Halo then you didnt need to buy Halo 2. Another observation about Halo 2 is my four-and-a-half-year-old grandson finished it in less than a week, and my 11-year-old grandson did it in a couple of days; both said they were very
disappointed. I was sadly disappointed with all four of the games, and most of all with Doom 3. It reminded me of Final Fantasyreally great graphics and absolutely no story. Not only did Doom 3 not have story, it had no characters. Half-Life 2 had several interesting characters, but Far Cry didnt have any characters either. The last game I played that had real story, in fact three stories, was Deus Ex. Even Kate Archer Must Die has some story, in addition to being amusing and having
characters. But lest I judge, let me say that I have no idea what the rest of the world thinks of Doom 3. I read an early review of it and the reviewer said he probably wouldnt play the game because he didnt like horror films and especially when he was part of one. I thought that was the greatest recommendation the game could get and spoke volumes about its realism and graphics quality, and the game does deliver that. However, I think weve hit a brick wallIve mentioned this before. When the best the game community can produce is remakes of 1990s games, and then they take two to three years to do that, were in a sad situation. The big titles, Half-Life 2 and Doom3, as well as many others, have the same concepta huge, powerful, evil force to overcome. But then when you accomplish that goal, you wonder why. The problem is the game developers cant assimilate the new technology fast enough. I remember back in the early 90s when game developers were asking what is a z-buffer, and then saying we dont need it, and then saying why do we have to use it. Today they are confronted with vertex shaders, pixel shaders, and 12 pipes of the stuff. They have to spend all their time trying to write code to match the image ideas of the artists, and in the process seem to lose any concept of story. And the pressure wont let up. In a year or so well have two new, and dramatically different, architectures in console land: the Cell from IBM-Sony, and a Power Processor with a conventional graphics pipeline from ATI. Cross-platform challenges aside, the game developers are going to have their hands full trying to understand and then exploit these new architectures. Remember how long it took for really great games to get to the PS2. History will repeat itself with Xbox2 and the next-generation console from Sony.
Where are the games for high-end phones?

Now we have an even newer problem. Where are the games for these exalted, but yet to be seen, high-end superphones? So far it looks like the phone will only be good for racing and maybe fighting games. First-person shooters (FPSs), at least the first ones this person saw, are less than interesting, with very restrictive movement on screens that are too small. I was coming to the conclusion that the best high-end phone games we could hope for would be Gameboy-like games. Maybe if the high-end phones adopt the PDA form factor, or find a way to fill the entire surface of the phone with a display (and I guess some external control method), they could become universal game machines like a PS2 or Xbox, or PSP, but even though Ive seen some innovative designs, the likelihood of production units with those qualities is probably two years away. And then I went to Cannes. Well, now Im a believer. I saw, held, and played a couple of FPS games on phones with a normal size screen, and it was OK. And a remarkable thing happened: I didnt care about story or characters, I just wanted to run around and shoot things. Then I got it. There will not only be different screen size, color depth, and scene complexity on handhelds, there will be different interest in the games.
Its the setting, stupid

When you play a game on a PC, its different from how you play on a See ITS ALL ABOUT THE PIXEL, previous page
JON PEDDIES TECH WATCH VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 FEBRUARY 28, 2005

Tech Watch: The Future in The Palm of Our Hand

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Tech Watch: The Future in The Palm of Our Hand

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JPR

Jon Peddie Research

FEBRUARY 28, 2005 Volume 5, Number 4

The future in the palm of our hand

HELLO, MA? I GOT A JOB. Texas Instruments

SET-TOP BOXES Early Q404 results show strong DSTB growth

THE BUSINESS OF GRAPHICS AND MULTIMEDIA

JON PEDDIES TECH WATCH

We can always hope, cant we?

JON PEDDIES TECH WATCH

TI owns the world

The low-cost handset

FIGURE 1. Worldwide deployment of high-bandwidth networks.

VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 FEBRUARY 28, 2005

JON PEDDIES TECH WATCH

Easy Migration Across Standards and Market Segments

e Standalon essors Proc Application

Future OMAP-Vox 3G Solutions

Integrated Modem & ns Applicatio

r tSmane pho OMAP-Vox Feature Solutions Phone Val Phoue ne

Future OMAP-Vox 3G Solutions

GSM/GPRS Value Chipsets

Single-chip Cell Phone GSM/GPRS

ology echn DRP T

Future OMAP-Vox 3G Single-chip Cell Phone

FIGURE 2. TIs mobile chip roadmap.

The OMAP-Vox Platform

Software Reuse for Rapid, Cost-Efficient Development

Nokia makes deals; builds on market share

Video Conferencing Digital TV

Applications Software OMAP

Imaging Video Web Browsing Audio 2D/3D Graphics Gaming

are ftw So euse R

Imaging Video Web Browsing Audio 2D/3D Graphics Gaming

GSM/GPRS/EDGE Protocol Stack

GSM/GPRS/EDGE Protocol Stack UMTS L1

Nokias data deals

FIGURE 3. TIs legacy software support and protection scheme.

VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 FEBRUARY 28, 2005

JON PEDDIES TECH WATCH

VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 FEBRUARY 28, 2005

Photo: Jon Peddie Research

JON PEDDIES TECH WATCH

New phones NOKIA 6681features

NOKIA 6680a smartphone

NOKIA 6101a clamshell de-

We have no idea why anyone would want a two-camera phone.

JON PEDDIES TECH WATCH

JON PEDDIES TECH WATCH

HIGH-SPEED RADIO UPLINK (EDCH OR HSUPA)to complement

DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT 1.0enables content providers

IP MULTIMEDIA SUBSYSTEMS (IMS) PHASE 2compresses all the

INTEROPERABILITY WITH WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORKS

BROWSING 2.2based on XHTMLMobile Profile,

MULTIMEDIA BROADCAST MULTICAST SERVICE (MBMS)provides

SUPPORT FOR CONVERSATIONAL SERVICESsuch as Push to talk

INSTANT MESSAGING AND PRESENCE SERVICE 1.2universal

SYNC ML COMMON SPECIFICATION 1.2includes docu-

OMA defines service enablers, elevates four to candidate status

WIRELESS PUBLIC KEY INFRASTRUCTURE 1.0adds public

MULTIMEDIA MESSAGING SERVICE 1.1enables clients to

VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 FEBRUARY 28, 2005