Texas Instruments is offering a new DaVinci technology digital media processor for MPEG-2 and H.264 video transcoding.
Wrapped with a complete offering of development tools and digital media software, the new TMS320DM6467 DaVinci processor is a DSP-based system-on-chip (SoC) tuned for real-time, multi-format, high-definition (HD) video transcoding. Integrating an ARM926EJ-S core and 600 MHz C64x+TM DSP core along with a high-definition video co-processor, conversion engine and targeted video port interfaces, the system solution delivers a 10x performance improvement over previous generation processors to perform simultaneous, multi-format HD encode, decode and transcoding up to H.264 HP@L4 (1080p 30fps, 1080i 60fps, 720p 60fps).
The DM6467 processor integrates the ARM and DSP core along with High-Definition Video/Imaging Co-Processors (HD-VICP), video data conversion engine and targeted video port interfaces. The HD-VICP offers more than three GHz of DSP processing power through dedicated accelerators for HD 1080i H.264 high profile transcoding, while the video data conversion engine manages video processing tasks, including downscaling, chroma sampling and menu overlay functionality. Less than 300 MHz of the DSP core is used to manage the multi-format video transcoding, leaving the rest of the DSP headroom available for additional application performance. While the DM6467 targets markets such as Media Gateways and MCUs where Transcoding is a requirement, the flexibility and efficiency of the DM6467 makes it attractive in applications where simultaneous HD encoding and decoding are required such as video telephony, or video security markets where multiple channels of standard definition encoding is important. The device also includes a standard PCI bus and gigabit Ethernet among the connectivity peripherals.
The new DM6467 processor takes full advantage of TI's DaVinci development environment, including complete hardware, software and development tools. TI is also offering a corresponding DM6467 digital video evaluation module (DVEVM), which includes MontaVista Linux, industry standard and DaVinci application programming interfaces (APIs), DaVinci Codec Engine and a host of multimedia codecs for evaluation. In addition to standard video, imaging, speech and audio codecs, the system includes new transcoders, such as MPEG-2 to H.264.
The DaVinci TMS320DM6467 is now sampling to select customers and will be sold in 50Ku volume for $35.95. The DVEVM is scheduled to begin shipping in 1Q08 from TI and TI Authorized Distributors.