TI's DM8168 DaVinci video SoC offers best-in-class embedded video performance

BANGALORE, INDIA: Continuing to meet the increasing demand for highly integrated, high definition (HD) video, Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) announced the TMS320DM8168 DaVinci video system-on-chip (SoC), which consolidates all of the capture, compression, display and control functionalities of an HD multi-channel system onto a single chip.

Designed specifically for video security and video communications applications, this best-in-class video SoC offers extreme integration including a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 and a 1 GHz TI C674x digital signal processor (DSP) core. This integration of the DM8168 video SoC drastically reduces system electronic bill of materials (eBOM) costs by 50 percent, as well as reducing board area and power consumption by replacing the functionality of more than 10 discrete components.

The DM8168 video SoC offers best-in-class performance, up to four times the video compression performance compared to TI’s previous generation industry performance leader, the 1GHz DM6467T, including increased multi-channel density and support for higher resolutions.

Combined with an order of magnitude increase in HD video pre- and post-processing, this best-in-class video SoC delivers unprecedented video performance, enabling higher quality video at lower bitrates for video security and video communications applications.

Compared to previous generations of digital video processors, the innovative DM8168 video SoC slashes digital video recorder (DVR) system cost and complexity by providing the capabilities of a 16-channel DVR in a single video SoC with advanced video analytics and enhanced 2D and 3D graphics (www.ti.com/dm8168-prhome).

DM8168 video SoC key system features and benefits:
* For hybrid security DVR solutions, simultaneous 16 channels of H.264 high profile D1 encoding with CIF multi-streaming and eight channels of D1 decoding plus video compositing and graphics blending supporting up to three independent displays.

* For video communications applications, ability to simultaneously support three channels of 1080p at 60 frames per second (fps) and reduce glass-to-glass latency below 50 milliseconds (ms) by eliminating off-chip inefficiencies with codec latency of less than 1 ms.

* Extreme integration including a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8, 1 GHz TI C674x floating-point DSP, several second-generation programmable HD video image co-processors, an innovative HD video processing subsystem and comprehensive codec support including H.264, MPEG-4 and VC1 at HD resolutions.

* Multiple interfaces including gigabit Ethernet, PCI Express, SATA2, DDR2, DDR3, USB 2.0, MMC/SD, HDMI and DVI provide flexibility in design implementations.

* Glueless interface to four TI TVP5158 multi-channel video decoders seamlessly captures up to 16 D1 video channels. TI’s TVP5158 decoder automatically controls contrast and reduces noise to improve compression ratios and overall video quality thus eliminating the need for additional FPGAs and external memory while simplifying design and providing more system flexibility.