An additional member of its new family of media player ICs, with innovative IP aimed at bridging the gap between the audio/video experience of multimedia players and home entertainment devices, has been unveiled by Austriamicrosystems.The AS3536 is an innovative multimedia player system whose core is based on newly developed audio and video engines with post-processors acting as co-processors to an ARM central programmable unit capable of 400 MHz. The IC also includes system level POWER management, a high quality audio codec and battery charging. The claimed power consumption is at system level that is inclusive of power conversion losses, access to NAND Flash, DRAM memories and audio played to headphones with running application software. A lower cost derivative, AS3535, which is also available, plays audio/video at up to WQVGA resolution with a system power of 60mW, a level that most of today's audio players require for music files only.
For portable devices, it is essential to minimize power consumption while in stand-by mode. The fully static design and low leakage technology of AS3536 allow for only 1.4mW preserving context or 4mW while refreshing the display from the on-chip 512Kbytes buffer (with screen backlight off), says the company.
The audio engine, in a fully hardwired context, executes the decompression and playback of most popular compressed audio formats, like MP3, WMA and AAC, for the least amount of power consumption with 0 (zero) CPU load. The audio post-processor implements an Asynchronous Sample Rate Converter (ASRC) with near transparent quality, a multi-channel mixer with limiting function and 10 band graphics equalizer, and supports 192 KHz sample rates at 24 bits dynamic range for high definition audio processing. Three sets of I2S outputs can independently control stereo speakers, subwoofer and headphone or line outputs and may also be utilized as multi-channel audio outputs. The AS3536 audio subsystem additionally includes a stereo PDM digital microphone input thereby completing all audio requirements for new generation multimedia players.
The fully hardware implemented video engine can decompress and play H.264/AVC, MPEG4, H.263, WMV9/VC-1 and Sorenson Spark multi-standard video with resolution in excess of DVD players (D1 video). JPEG pictures are decompressed at 16Mpixels/sec. WMV9 is supported to Main Profile at High Level so that storing DVD movies requires less than 1/6th of their original file sizes at equivalent quality. The video post-processor includes features like up/down video scaling, rotation, cropping, split screens, picture in picture and alpha blending for enhanced GUI effects. The unique capability to play Sorenson Spark video as supported by Adobe Flash allows to play content at very low power from popular Web sites, i.e. YouTube and Google Video.
The AS3536 directly interfaces to the latest generation removable and embedded flash memory types with 4/8/16-bit hardware ECC, such as MLC NAND Flash, iNAND, LBA NAND, moviNAND, oneNAND and removable card formats like SD2.0, MMC+, CE-ATA, MS PRO and CF. The AS3536 is complemented by a comprehensive mature software suite backed by three generations of products delivered in the multimedia player market. The SDK has passed the stringent test criteria of the Certified for Windows Vista program for downloadable content.
Roberto Simmarano, senior marketing director, Business Unit Communications, Austriamicrosystems, said: "With austriamicrosystems' AS3536, portable multimedia players and mobile TV receivers can now reproduce standard definition video content without compromising battery consumption. Listening to music, the prevalent use of portable entertainment devices, the AS3536 offers the same uncompromised experience as with high quality home A/V devices due to its immersive lossless high definition audio capabilities, yet with an exceptional threefold increase in playtime compared to current generation portable multimedia devices."
The AS3536 is available in a CTBGA 244 balls package, 10mm x 10mm with 0.5mm ball pitch. The lower cost derivative AS3535 supports video of up to WQVGA resolution and a CPU clock rate of 266MHz. For both devices evaluation boards and reference kits are available, says the company.
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