System LSIs for Digital Broadcasting Applications
次郎 長沼 · NTT technical review · 2007
Motivation for MPEG-2 chip developmentRecent progress in video and audio compression technology has made it possible to provide a much greater quantity and range of digital multimedia.The MPEG-2 standard [] has emerged as a method for effectively compressing video and audio with high quality.In particular, this standard is currently seeing extensive worldwide use in many transmission and storage applications, such as digital satellite broadcasting, digital terrestrial broadcasting, digital cable television, video conferencing, video-on-demand, and DVD and CD-ROM storage media.In particular, the advent of high-quality HDTV (high-definition television) terrestrial digital broadcasting in Japan at the end of 2003 required high-quality, compact, lowpower, reliable MPEG-2 HDTV codecs for infrastructure and peripheral systems of practical terrestrial broadcasting.We have developed several MPEG-2 codec chips and systems during the last ten years, as shown in Fig. 1.In 995, we presented a two-chip MPEG-2 SP@ ML * video encoder chip set [2] and introduced the MPEG-2 PCI board that we had developed earlier.In 998, we presented a single-chip MPEG-2 MP@ML video encoder chip (called SuperENC [3]) with an HDTV extension.This chip made possible our small "U-half-rack-sized portable HDTV encoder for professional use" [4] and the small "encoding PC card for notebook PCs" [5].In 2002, we announced two MPEG-2 codec LSIs (large-scale integrated circuits).One was VASA, the world's first single-chip MPEG-2 HDTV codec LSI [6] for professional contribution transmission (explained in sections 2. and 3.) in Japanese digital terrestrial broadcasting.The other was ISIL [7], [8], a consumer/prosumer *2 single-chip full-duplex MPEG-2 codec LSI with HDV (highdefinition video) compliance for embedding in mobile and small codec systems.Using these chips, we have also developed several compact, low-power, reliable infrastructure and peripheral systems for practical terrestrial digital broadcasting. Architectures of VASA and ISIL Target applicationsThe target applications of VASA and ISIL are shown in Fig. 2. VASA is for professional use and is System LSIs for Digital Broadcasting Applications