NEC Electronics Launches Industry’s First High-Image Quality, One-Chip Video Decoder LSI Chip with 3DYC Separation and 3D Noise Reduction Functions

New LSI Delivers Superior Image Quality for Analog Video Sources for Digital Home Applications

NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) and its subsidiaries in Europe and the United States, NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH and NEC Electronics America, Inc., today introduced the µPD64012 video decoder LSI chip, the industry's first system LSI to integrate five main video processing functions onto a single chip. In the highly competitive consumer electronics market, size, cost, and time to market are key factors in a product’s success. By integrating the main functions, including three-dimensional (3D) noise reduction and 3D luminance/chrominance (Y/C) separation, onto a single chip in miniaturized form, the µPD64012 chip enables design engineers to reduce design footprint by approximately 50 percent, system component costs by approximately 30 percent and the LSI integration time required, thereby speeding time to market and lowering system costs.

“The growth of digital consumer products in recent years has resulted in a rapid increase in the demand for AV equipment capable of handling high-quality images, traditionally accomplished by using multiple LSIs to provide all the necessary video decoder functions,” said Masao Hirasawa, General Manager, Digital Audio/Visual Systems Division, NEC Electronics Corporation. ”By delivering a video decoder solution with a high level of integration, NEC Electronics is providing customers with the semiconductor solution they need to produce high-performance digital AV devices at prices attractive to the consumer.”

Video decoders enable the use of analog TV broadcasting in digital home devices such as liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions (TVs), plasma TVs, DVD recorders, set-top boxes (STBs) and video-capture cards for PCs. Until now, designers had to use a combination of LSIs to achieve the required functions, resulting in a number of challenges, including large board size, which made the creation of small products difficult; a large number of components, which resulted in higher costs; and a lengthy LSI connection process, which increased the time to market. 

Using leading-edge circuit technology and a unified memory technology that allows the consolidation of multiple discrete external memories devices into one memory device, the µPD64012 LSI chip incorporates the following five functions:

• Video decoder converts analog video signals into high-quality digital video signals

• 3D noise reduction removes the noise in analog video signals and eliminates image flicker

• Anti-alias filter eliminates noise exceeding the video signal bandwidth

• 3D Y/C separator accurately separates the luminance and chrominance in NTSC signals to reduce dot-crawl and cross-color artifacts and enable high-quality video capture

• Supports all the major analog signal interface standards, including the SCART system used in Europe, the S system used in Japan, and the component and composite systems used worldwide. It also supports the major TV broadcast signal standards PAL and SECAM, which are used in Europe, and NTSC, which is used in Japan and the U.S.

The µPD64012 chip enables higher image quality for consumer electronics such as flat panel TVs by simultaneously applying 3D Y/C separation and 3D noise reduction to analog video signals and by offering a direct connection to the µPD64031A chip, an NEC Electronics LSI chip that reduces ghosting in Japan's terrestrial analog broadcast signals, resulting in enhanced image quality. The µPD64012 chip also digitizes progressive signals to achieve smooth images with little flicker from high-image quality DVD players. 

Availability
Samples of the µPD64012 chip are available now. Mass production is scheduled to begin in December 2004 with a planned production of 500,000 units per month. Availability is subject to change.

NEC Electronics and NEC Electronics America are either a trademark or registered trademark of NEC Electronics Corporation in Japan, the United States, and/or other countries.

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