MIPS Architecture Driving High-Growth Digital Still And Digital Video Camera Markets

When you choose your next digital still or video camera, chances are that it relies upon the industry-standard MIPS® architecture to enhance the user experience with what many consider "must-have" features, such as DVD-quality full-motion video, high-quality audio and ultra-fast image processing.

MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MIPS), a Silicon Valley-based company whose intellectual property (IP) enables many of the world's most popular digital consumer and business applications, announced today that leading consumer companies, such as Canon, Fujifilm, JVC, PENTAX, and Samsung, are currently shipping MIPS-Based™ digital camera models to retail stores within the United States, Japan and Europe. These devices expand the growing reach of the MIPS architecture into the fast-growing market for mobile consumer applications, which require high performance processors to enable next-generation features while meeting the demanding operating requirements of battery powered devices.

"Digital cameras and camcorders are among the top five largest application segments in today's digital consumer market, with 46 million digital cameras sold worldwide during 2003," said Allen Leibovitch, manager in IDC's semiconductor practice. "Using high performance processors, MIPS Technologies and its partners are helping expand this market by enabling OEMs to offer cameras with richer functionality at the right cost points."

"Camera manufacturers are using our cores in a variety of different ways within these new models," explained Jack Browne, vice president of worldwide sales at MIPS Technologies. "In each case, they choose our technology because we provide the high performance needed to deliver exciting user experiences at the low power consumption levels that portable devices require."

Companies such as AMD, Philips Semiconductors, NEC, Sunplus of Taiwan, Toshiba and Zoran Corporation, have been at the forefront of MIPS Technologies licensees driving MIPS-Based products into mobile consumer applications including smart cards, wireless media tablets, robotic toys and portable game devices.

With the highest performing synthesizable 32-bit product line in the industry today, the MIPS architecture provides design engineers the horsepower necessary to enable digital cameras with enhanced image processing and enlargement, zero delay digital zoom and natural color reproduction while balancing the overall system and controlling power, I/O and file management. At the same time, power-saving innovations in MIPS-Based implementations maximize camera battery life. Furthermore, designers can get to market quickly at lower cost points by accessing the wide range of optimized software, tools and IP available for the industry-standard MIPS32® and MIPS64® architectures.

Current digital still (DSC) and video camera (DVC) models that use the MIPS architecture include:

Canon

• Canon EOS 10D (digital SLR camera)
  
• Canon EOS Digital Rebel (digital SLR camera)
  
• Canon Optura 300 digital video camcorder
  

• 
  
• FinePix F700 (digital still camera)
  
• FinePix S5000 Zoom (digital still camera)
  
• FinePix S7000 Zoom (digital still camera)

JVC

• GR-HD1 (high-definition digital video camera)

PENTAX

• Model number not disclosed

Samsung

• Digimax 370 digital camera
  
• Digimax 430 digital camera

Select MIPS Technologies Licensees Driving the DSC/DVC Markets:

Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd.
"Our DSC chip solution offers 4 million pixels to enable some of the highest resolutions possible in a highly integrated, cost-effective SoC," said Yarn-Chen Chen, president of Sunplus Technology. "Leveraging the processor's performance, the SPCA536 product allows JPEG for digital still cameras and MPEG4 technology to be used as a digital video and PC-based camera."

Toshiba America Electronic Component (TAEC)
"Toshiba's MIPS-Based TX System RISC family has won many ASSP and custom designs in the DSC and DVC market segments. Our 32- and 64-bit MIPS RISC processors feature exceptionally low-power consumption. With the state of the art embedded flash and embedded DRAM technology, SIP (System in Package) technology, and a wide range of TX System RISC processors integrating various types of intellectual property, Toshiba provides architecture technology suitable for functions required for DSC and DVC applications," said Shardul Kazi, vice president of the TX-RISC Business Unit at TAEC.

Zoran Corporation
Zoran's MIPS-Based Camera On A Chip (COACH) 6 and 7 products leverage the high-performance attributes of the MIPS architecture to combine excellent image quality and a feature set that allows manufacturers to differentiate their cameras and reduce the bill of materials (BOM) cost. The COACH 6 family supports up to 16 Megapixel sensors, while the newly introduced COACH 7 family supports DVD-quality video with compression technology that offers 30 frames per second using MPEG4.

About MIPS Technologies
MIPS Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer and business applications. The company drives the broadest architectural alliance that is delivering 32- and 64-bit embedded RISC solutions. The company licenses its intellectual property to semiconductor companies, ASIC developers, and system OEMs. MIPS Technologies and its licensees offer the widest range of robust, scalable processors in standard, custom, semi-custom and application-specific products. The company is based in Mountain View, Calif., and can be reached at +1 (650) 567-5000 or www.mips.com.