Aptina and eASIC announce high definition H.264 reference design

SANTA CLARA, USA: Aptina, a global provider of image sensor solutions and eASIC Corporation, today announced the immediate availability of a H.264 High Definition (HD) reference design that is capable of supporting up to 720p/30fps rates.

The new HD reference design is aimed at enabling, and simplifying the development for a new class of low-cost HD applications and making low-cost HD solutions available for the masses. Applications include low-cost HD camcorders, baby monitors, public transportation, wireless surveillance, medical and industrial/automotive vision systems.

The HD H.264 reference design is built using Aptina’s MT9D131 HD image sensor with eASIC’s eDV9200 low cost HD H.264 CODEC. The reference design enables video capture, H.264 compression and decompression, streaming of compressed AV streams through SPI or USB2.0, storage of compressed video and audio on a Secure Digital (SD) storage card, and decompression and playback on to LCD display or through a DVI interface.

“eASIC’s eDV9200 is a powerful little CODEC that is poised to accelerate the adoption of HD in a wide variety of applications,” said David Zimpfer, Vice President and General Manager, Automotive and Industrial Business Unit at Aptina. “Through delivering a versatile platform for rapid, cost-effective system development, this new reference design will foster the rapid adoption of Aptina and eASIC technology in many applications currently untouched by HD.”

“We want to make the development of HD applications, low cost, accessible and simple for anyone,” said Jasbinder Bhoot, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at eASIC Corporation. “Aptina’s MT9D131 HD image sensor made it very easy for us to develop a reference design platform that helps our customers get to market quickly with their innovations.”

Reference design contents
The H.264 HD reference design includes the following:
* One eASIC eDVR92 development board
* One Aptina MT9D131 HD CMOS image sensor panel with built-in ISP. The MT9D131 image sensor with its 2.0 megapixel resolution, 1/3.2 optical format, and integrated advanced camera system with numerous automated functions.
* Documentation CD including user guide, schematic diagrams, Gerber files, API

The eDVR92-based H.264 HD reference design is available now from eASIC. Pricing for the eDVR9200 CODEC IC starts at $4.95 in high volume.