Tokyo,March 31,2003—Hitachi Ltd.,(TSE:6501,NYSE:HIT) today announced the media processor "BroadGearTM Series" (hereafter referred to as the BroadGear processor) whose video processing performance [peak performance 55 GOPS (*1) (at 370 MHz)] is double that of our existing product (MAP-CA). This was a result of adding an video processing engine to the VLIW (*2) and SIMD (*3) architecture CPU core. This product will be released on the 1st of April and sample shipment will also commence.
The BroadGear processor is a processor with high flexibility that can meet diversified media processing standards (*4). The BroadGear highly integrates VLIW CPU core, coprocessors and peripheral interfaces that are necessary to multi-media products into one chip. Because multi-media functions are delivered by application software rather than dedicated hardware, this chip contributes to flexibility, time to market and the reduction in the number of parts. This product is the most suitable for video-centric applications such as video surveillance systems, broadband video distribution, and set-top-boxes.
| (*1) GOPS (Giga Operation Per Second): Index to indicate how many calculations can be performed simultaneously per second |
| (*2) VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word): Architecture that performs multiple processing in a single cycle by increasing the instruction word length |
| (*3) SIMD (Single Instruction/Multiple Data): One of the processing types of the microprocessor to allow the handling of multiple data with a single instruction |
| (*4) MPEG-2 (Moving Picture Experts Group phase 2), MPEG-4,JPEG2000 (Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000), MP2 (MPEG-1 Audio LayerII), NTSC/PAL (National Television Standards Committee/Phase Alternation by Line Color Television), IEC958 (International Electrotechnical Commission 958), etc. |
With the spread of the broadband network, the market of video and image processing centric multi-media products(digital TV, Internet broadcasting, digital video recorders, video on demand (VOD) systems, security and surveillance systems, etc.) has rapidly developed. For those applications, this chip gives high video image performance and flexibility to meet for various standards.
In March 2000, Hitachi (and Equator Technologies, Inc) announced and introduced the media processor "MAP-CA" to meet the high image processing performance and high flexibility specifications required in diversified media processing standards. The "MAP-CA" adopts the architecture based on the VLIW and SIMD, and achieved high image processing performance of 30 GOPS (at 300 MHz).
Because media functions can be programmed in C language, various functions including MPEG encoding/decoding, can be implemented by the application program.
Hitachi is providing a compiler (*5) and an evaluation board (*6) as a tool kit to develop an application program. With this tool kit, media processing can be programmed in C language. This facilitates the development of an application program, thereby remarkably reducing the development period . Hitachi is also supplying typical application software separately. The in-circuit emulator (*7) will be supplied by Sophia Systems Co., Ltd. (Representative Director: Masashi Saito).
(*5) A program to translate a program described in high-level language C into an optimum form
(*6) A board used for operation check and performance evaluation of an application program
(*7) A development tool to analyze error by executing LSI operations on an actual machine
| Price and shipping time of the new product in Japan (For Reference) |
| Product name |
Sample price |
Sample shipment availability |
| BroadGear |
¥10,000/piece |
April 1,2003 |
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- The compiler, evaluation board, application software, and in-circuit emulator are options. Information regarding cost and other details can be provided upon request.
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| Outline of Sophia Systems Co., Ltd. |
<As of March 31, 2003> |
|
- Name: Sophia Systems Co., Ltd. (Company listed in JASDAQ (6942))
- Location of headquarters: Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture
- Foundation: August 1975
- Representative director: Masashi Saito
- Number of employees: 150
- Description of business: Development, manufacturing, sale, repair, maintenance, and consulting information/service operations of electric devices, and staffing service of incidental engineering workers and software workers
- Line of business
Design/automation system
-- Microcomputer development support system (in-circuit emulator), EDA system
Information system, etc.
-- Stock price information system, radio recording/reproducing tool
- For further information on Sophia Systems Co., Ltd., contact:
http://www.sophia-systems.co.jp/
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| References |
Person in charge: Kojima
Planning Office, Device Development Center,
Information and Telecommunication Systems
Hitachi, Ltd.
6-16-3, Shinmachi, Ome-shi, Tokyo 198-8512
+81-(0)428-33-2011 (direct dialing)
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