According to the company, the SMP8644 provides improvements in performance coupled with a the broad array of interface capabilities required to support interactivity, extended system features, and studio level image quality typically associated with high end consumer products.
Sigma’ SMP8644 media processor integrates a wide complement of advanced capabilities for a system-on-chip (SOC) solution with multimedia processing, content security system, multiple on-chip CPUs, on-chip system peripherals and a wide range of external interfaces. Its combination of on-chip processors yield an impressive increase in overall performance while its expanded system interfaces enable support for a wide complement of additional devices and features, said Sigma Designs.
The company claims that from a media processing standpoint, the SMP8644 offers a full complement of advanced decoder engines with high definition video decoding, including H.264 (MPEG-4 part 10), Windows Media Video 9, VC-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (part 2), and the new AVS standard. High-performance graphics acceleration, multi-standard audio decoding with 3 on-chip DSP engines which can decode all required standards including DTS-HD MA 7.1, advanced display processing capabilities, and HDMI 1.3 output round out its multimedia core. Powerful content security is ensured through a dedicated secure processor, on-chip flash memory, and a range of digital rights management (DRM) engines for high-speed payload decryption.
The SMP8644 also features a full complement of system peripherals, including a dual Ethernet controller, dual USB 2.0 controller, NAND and NOR flash controllers, IR controller, and a dual SATA controller.
Sigma Designs has said that the SMP8644 is a multi-core media processor that features a 667 MHz MIPS main CPU, providing 1330 DMIPS to enable crisp user interaction and a wider range of application-based features which enhance the future-proofing of this platform. A second MIPS processor called the IPU manages real-time interrupt operations and offloads burdensome system tasks such as networking and graphics to further optimize main CPU utilization.
Sigma Designs has also said that a third MIPS processor manages all system security functions including decryption and key generation. The SMP8644 also features two 32-bit DDR-2 memory controllers which supports double-data-rate memories up to 667 Mbps as well as an improved arbitration engine to maximize the efficiency of accesses. To meet the new low-power requirements for consumer products, the SMP8644 features several standby modes, including full sleep and wake-on-LAN. Finally, the SMP8644 maintains software compatibility with the Sigma Multimedia Library to build on the proven performance and reliability of the earlier generation platforms.
