Broadcom Brings MPEG-4 Video to Phones
Chipmaker Broadcom announced at 3GSM Monday a new processor that is specifically designed to handle high quality video and imaging on mobile phones. According to the company, the additional power for video processing comes at no cost to talk time.
The processor will feature built-in support to display video at 30 frames per second, which is near-TV quality video, as well as support for MPEG-4 encoding and decoding. MPEG-4 support was previously only available in higher-end digital video camcorders.
Developers at Broadcom were able to include this functionality without a significant decrease in battery life in the phone.
"The increasing popularity of high-end multimedia features in mobile phones has created demand for these capabilities at price points accessible to mainstream consumers," said Dr. Jalal Bagherli, Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom's Mobile Multimedia Business Unit.
According to analyst firm IDC, multimedia phones are expected to become a hot commodity over the next few years. Allen Leibovitch, Manager of Semiconductor Research at IDC, said that he expects multimedia processor shipments to surpass 110 million units by 2008.
No announcement was immediately made on upcoming phones that will include the new processor.