Zoran Announces New Highly Integrated DVD Chip Set For Midrange And Entry Level Markets

14-Nov-00

Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ: ZRAN), a leading provider of digital solutions-on-a-chip for applications in the growing multimedia and Internet consumer markets, announced that the Vaddis IV-LC and Vaddis CompanionCPU are being integrated into Zoran customer products to optimize their full-featured midrange and entry-level DVD-Video player designs. This chip set offers OEMs the combination of highly integrated hardware architecture, a new optimized software architecture, and advanced 0.18-micron process technology. Zoran also announced the advanced Vaddis V DVD Multimedia Processor, which will be demonstrated at Comdex 2000. Used together, the Vaddis IV-LC and Vaddis CompanionCPU reduce the chip count of the DVD processing board to only four chips, while most other competing solutions currently require 5 to 7 chips. A DVD player's main board consists of a DVD decoder, NTSC/PAL video encoder, CPU, CPU flash, CPU SRAM, audio codec and SDRAM. The Vaddis IV-LC includes both a DVD decoder and video encoder, while the Vaddis CompanionCPU incorporates the CPU, 512KB of flash and embedded SRAM. With the new optimized software architecture, the embedded flash on the CompanionCPU stores the entire DVD player program code without the need for additional memory. Zoran's patented use of 16Mbit SDRAM for full DVD decoding reduces the memory requirement as compared with other solutions. With the Vaddis IV-LC and the Vaddis CompanionCPU, audio codec and a single 16Mbit SDRAM, a full implementation is realized. ""This chip set addresses the complete DVD player feature set for value and midrange players, while achieving a lower system cost for our OEM customers. Our unique architecture optimizes DVD player system design by addressing both hardware and software aspects. The built-in flexibility allows OEMs to differentiate their product designs and achieve rapid time to market,"" said Ram Ofir, Director of Marketing at Zoran Corporation.""We expect worldwide annual shipments of DVD players to be greater than 55 million in 2004 as consumer adoption increases and continues to drive the rapid growth of this market,"" said Michelle Abraham, Senior Analyst for Multimedia Markets at Cahners In-Stat Group. The Vaddis IV-LC is an advanced DVD decoder incorporating enhanced video filtering and an NTSC/PAL video encoder. Built-in image enhancement filtering enables sharpness, brightness and contrast picture adjustments in the DVD player. With its integrated NTSC/PAL encoder and four 10-bit digital-to-analog Converters (DACs), the Vaddis IV-LC has direct analog video output, eliminating the need for an external chip. The Vaddis IV-LC supports a vast array of trick modes, such as Zoran's proprietary video scaling, ZoranZoomô. Full DVD playback is achieved using only a single 16Mbit SDRAM. With an integrated 54 MIPS Audio DSP and six-channel audio output capability, the Vaddis IV-LC supports a diverse range of audio algorithms including DTSÆ Digital Surroundô decoding. Other leading audio algorithms, such as HDCDÆ, DolbyÆ Digital, Dolby Pro LogicÆ and MPEG-5.1 decoding are also supported with this solution. In addition, it is MP3 decoding capable and has support for audio algorithms including 3D virtual surround and enhanced Karaoke processing. ""Integrated DTS decoding is now emerging as a high-demand feature for mainstream DVD players,"" explained David DelGrosso, Vice President of Marketing, Digital Theater Systems. ""With the expanding availability of DVD titles that offer DTS master quality soundtracks, consumers can now experience the finest sound possible for their favorite movie and music concerts. Zoran's DTS certified implementation accurately reproduces the ultimate entertainment experience of DTS Digital Surround."" The Vaddis CompanionCPU consists of a 25MHz 32-bit RISC CPU with embedded 512KB flash, embedded SRAM and peripheral DVD player interfaces. The embedded flash stores the entire DVD player's software, eliminating the need for external flash memory. Embedded SRAM is used for DVD navigation functions, eliminating the need for external memory. The CompanionCPU has interfaces common to DVD players eliminating the need for external glue logic for interfacing to the DVD drive and user controls. Solutions using the Vaddis IV-LC and the Vaddis CompanionCPU support glueless ATAPI, A/V and UDE drive interfaces. The Vaddis IV-LC supports a Real Time Operating System (RTOS) available with developer tools. Vaddis IV-LC (Zoran Part# ZR36732) and the Vaddis CompanionCPU (Zoran Part# ZR36703) are available in production quantities now. A complete reference design and development tools for the Vaddis IV-LC and Vaddis CompanionCPU chip set will be available next month. For more information about Zoran Corporation, visit www.zoran.com.

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