Fujitsu announced the launch of a new full high-definition (HD) multi-standard video decoder LSI for Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) HD broadcasts, that decodes both MPEG-2 and H.264 compression formats in full HD resolution (1920 dots x 1080 lines).

Sample shipment of the new LSI, the MB86H60, will start from the end of May 2008, for 5,000 JPY per piece.

The LSI decodes full HD video compressed in either MPEG-2 or H.264 and integrates on a single chip the necessary processing functions for a HD broadcast receiver, including processing of digital video, audio, and graphics. This makes the multi-decoder suitable for TVs, STBs, and portable TV receivers. Also, as the LSI’s functions can be employed with the addition of only two 16-bit wide external memory chips, it allows set vendors to reduce their overall costs when designing their TVs and STBs.

Following HD broadcasting in Japan and the US, for the ramp up of HD broadcasting in Europe, Fujitsu built on its expertise and experience of the previously released SmartMPEG series along with H.264 decoder technology co-developed with Fujitsu Laboratories Limited, to offer this multi-decoder, MB86H60, capable of supporting both MPEG-2 and H.264 video compression formats on a single chip.

The CPU core in the LSI is the ARM1176JZF-S, which supports a wide range of functions including system control for TVs and STBs, teletext, subtitles, and JPEG decoding. In addition, by integrating audio, graphic video processing, and functions required for processing HD broadcasts on one chip, Fujitsu’s full HD multi-decoder LSI enables set vendors to more easily construct their systems.

By simply connecting two 16-bit wide DDR2 SDRAM667 external memory chips as working memory to the multi-decoder chip, the chip becomes fully functional, including CPU-based system control and digital-video decoding. This allows set vendors to reduce the overall cost of their systems.

With four video-transfer ports, this multi-decoder LSI can be connected to a wide variety of external devices. For example, the LSI makes it possible to connect to digital video recorders (DVRs) which record TV broadcasts to a hard disk drive, or to connect to a conditional access card to view restricted digital broadcasts.