January 10, 2011

JVC HD LSI offers cost + speed gains

[UPDATED] JVC has developed "the world’s first LSI for high-speed processing of Full High-Definition video and stills on one chip for HD camcorders" and shown the first models using the chip at CES2011 in Las Vegas.

The large scale integrated chip will enable shooting and recording Full HD, including 3D images, and also higher resolution 4Kx2K images. High-speed photography with high-speed processing will also be possible. The LSI boasts low power consumption and should enable lower system costs by incorporating all image-processing technologies for HD shooting, including camera-signal processing and video/still image codecs.

JVC showed a concept "high speed multi-purpose camera" that uses this LSI at CES: the GC-PX1. Looking very like Sony's F707 stills camera, it offered 1920x1080 HD video at 60p (at 36Mbps), amongst other video and stills settings.


The Falconbrid LSI is also being used in JVC's new 3D camcorder, the GS-TD1. The LSI should be 2.7 times faster than JVC's previous CPU. It also: improves signal processing speeds by 70% (enabling 8.3-megapixel video at 60fps); doubles the speed of processing H.264 video (enabling compression of 2.07MP images at 60fps); speeds JPEG still-image processing by 5.5 times compared to its previous technology (enabling compression of images as large as 8.3MP in JPEG at 60fps).

It supports higher resolution video images, which it calls 4K2K (3840x2160 – that 8.3MP – at 60p) which is four times the data of HD.

Falconbrid should also deliver a 40% reduction in power consumption and 50% reduction of system costs compared to previous LSIs, making it suitable for use in a wide range of both consumer and professional products.

As all hardware and software is integrated into one platform, products that use it can be developed much more rapidly.

It will be particularly suitable for 3D, as it can do real-time 3D compression of separate Full HD images (1920 x 1080/60p) from right and left cameras using MPEG-4 MVC. The amount of data is double the conventional side-by-side 3D recording format, enabling high-resolution Full HD 3D images with one chip.

It could even do high-speed video capture in 3D, recording at 300fps (but at VGA resolution).

By David Fox

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