Mobile Application Processor in the Future

Published:2011/11/9 21:35:00 Author:Phyllis From:SeekIC

Mobile application processor in the future will not only be able to render holographic displays, real-time voice translation, natural speech interaction, high-definition augmented reality and multi-view synthesis, but also be capable of handling neuro, fuzzy-based and even humanistic intelligence.

With very humble consumer roots in calculators, TI turns to consumer electronic markets, such as tablets, smartphones, car infotainment systems, e-readers, low-powered computers, virtualized, terminals, portable terminals and even robotics.

Significant as the R&D investment is in Omap, tailoring and repackaging it for use in cars or tablets is still an incremental effort. TI is becoming increasingly adept at building additional software elements on top of its hardware to tailor Omap for different electronics segments.

As for why TI’s Omap platform seemed to be giving competing platforms a run for their money, probably the differentiator lay in the frim’s smart multicore architecture as well as an emphasis on high security and extraordinary user experiences. Smart multicore as a strategy involves TI’s usage of two ARM Cortex-A9s on the chip aimed at running high-level HLOS and applications, while two other ARM Cortex-M3s work to offload all real-time control processing, freeing up the main CPU.

Omap 5 would even more impressive than its Omap 4 predecessor, with its dual ARM Cortex-A15s able to reach up to 2-GHz of performance, and SGX544-MP2 GPU, dual-channel LPDDR2 or DDR3 memory and a video encode/decode standard of 1080p60 and 1080p30, respectively. The chip will be manufactured on a 28-nm CMOS low-power process and sport two additional ARM Cortex-M4 processors to help with CPU offloading for video, imaging, 3D graphics and more.

Omap 4 already supports the use of three screens in parallel, Omap 5 would be capable of supporting four. Omap 5 is going to offer the most extraordinary user experiences, from life-like stereoscopic 3D videos and images, to gesture-controlled apps and computational photography.

Omap 4 processors have the right hardware resources to address the technology standard. Screen content was compressed using H264 and transmitted over Wi-Fi link to another Wi-Fi-enabled screen. The content is effectively mirrored to a remote screen, which results in very low latency and a better user experience.

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