A 342mW mobile application processor with full-HD multi-standard video codec

Today's cellular phones must support full high-definition (full-HD) video in multiple video formats, such as H.264 and MPEG-2/-4, with low power consumption. Full-HD video processing requires six times the data bandwidth and is more computationally intensive than conventional standard-definition (SD) video. The trade-off between flexibility, performance and power consumption is a key focus of video-codec design. Homogeneous multi-core processors are power-consuming and achieving high-throughput is difficult [1]. While dedicated circuits can minimize power consumption, the dedicated decoders and encoders in previous reports [2, 3] have difficulty performing all of the media processing that is indispensable for a modern cellular phone [4]. In this paper, we have integrated a mobile application processor featuring a two-stage-processing video codec, tile-based address-translation circuits, and several audio/visual intellectual property (IP) modules.