TI Unveils Next Generation OMAP 2 Chips

Texas Instruments today announced their new OMAP 2 mobile chip architecture. TI says the chips enable high-quality 3D gaming, 4+ megapixel cameras, digital camcorders, TV output and more.

Current generation OMAP processors, like the ones included with the Treo 600 and Tungsten T2, have been designed into dozens of multimedia smartphone models. TI claims the new chips will boost video performance by a factor of 40. The chips will integrate a number of new multimedia features. New OMAP 2 chips will support features such as up to 6 megapixel cameras, up to DVD-quality video, interactive gaming console functionality, Hi-Fi music with 3D sound effects, analog and digital TV broadcast reception, high-speed wireless connectivity, greater than VGA resolution color LCD displays and more.

TI's first two devices based on the OMAP 2 architecture, the OMAP2410 and OMAP2420 stand-alone application processors, leverage the ARM11 microarchitecture and are TI's second-generation of processors to use 90 nm technology. The OMAP2410 chip includes an ARM1136JS-F core, a TI programmable DSP, a 2D/3D graphics accelerator offering up to 2 million polygons per second, integrated camera interface, sophisticated DMA controller and more. The OMAP2420 processor adds on top of the OMAP2410, a TI programmable imaging and video accelerator supporting 4 megapixel still capture applications, full-motion video encode or decode in CIF to VGA resolution. The OMAP2420 also has the ability to output images onto an external TV. 

The new processors will also have sophisticated power management features. TI utilized these features and leveraged its expertise in high-performance analog technology to also create the TML92230 energy management companion chip, replacing many discrete power management devices for reduced system cost and board area.

TI's OMAP 2 architecture uses processors that are code compatible with the current OMAP chips, greatly simplifying software reuse. OMAP 2 processors will continue to be supported by hardware evaluation modules, reference designs, ARM and DSP compilers, debuggers and development platforms including full OMAP 2 software emulations. The OMAP 2 architecture leverages TI´s complete subsystem building blocks for MPEG4, MP3, H.263, H.264, WMV, OpenGL ES and more. TI´s OMAP 2 processors continue to support all mobile operating systems such as Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, Linux, Nucleus, and Palm OS. The first OMAP 2 processors and TML92230 companion chips are expected to sample in the first half of 2004.