Renesas Technology to Release SH7777 (SH-NaviJ3) SoC for Dashboard-mounted Car Navigation and Infotainment Systems Offering Enhanced Audio and Video Functions

-- OpenGL® ES1.1, the industry-standard programming interface for graphics processing, is supported, allowing sophisticated and flexible 3-D graphics applications to be developed in less time--

SAN JOSE, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 27, 2009 — Renesas Technology America, Inc., today announced the SH7777 (SH-NaviJ3), the third product in the SH-NaviJ Series of system-on-chip (SoC) devices for compact portable navigation and infotainment systems and low- and mid-priced dashboard-mounted car navigation and infotainment systems. It speeds up development through OpenGL® ES1.1*¹ support and offers enhanced multimedia functions such as terrestrial digital TV broadcast support. The SH7777 (SH-NaviJ3) makes it possible for developers to create AV navigation and infotainment systems that combine low cost and compact size in less time. Sample shipments began in Japan on October 8, 2009.

The SH-NaviJ Series comprises compact, single-chip SoC devices that provide map rendering functions and high quality based on the SH-Navi series, which are already used in a variety of high-end systems, while offering a carefully chosen selection of functions suitable for low-end to midrange systems. The new SH7777 (SH-NaviJ3) offers the following enhancements over its predecessors.

(1) Sophisticated and flexible 3-D graphics applications to be developed in less time with OpenGL® ES1.1
			The new product incorporates a more powerful version of the graphics processor, with 2-D and 3-D rendering support included from the earlier SH-NaviJ1 and SH-NaviJ2, while also implementing support for OpenGL® ES1.1, the industry-standard programming interface for graphics processing in embedded devices. This enables 3-D graphics software development that previously required the use of a development board to be performed on a PC. The graphics processor supports high-level image display, such as rendering a variety of 3-D objects on a map or implementing a graphical user interface*2 (GUI) with very detailed and realistic looking 3-D elements. Support for OpenGL® ES1.1 greatly simplifies and speeds up development of the necessary software.
(2) High-performance, low-power multi-codec video processing IP
			To fully meet the requirements of today’s AV navigation and infotainment systems, the SH7777 (SH-NaviJ3) incorporates high-performance multi-codec video processing IP with support for the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video compression standard used in ISDB-T*3 terrestrial digital broadcasts for mobile phones and other devices. This IP employs technologies and skills based on the SH-Mobile series of application processors for mobile phone systems and delivers encoding and decoding performance of 30 frames per second (fps) in VGA format (640×480 pixels), supports MPEG-4 encoding and decoding as well as VC-1 decoding, and can be used for a wide variety of video application functions. In addition, it supports terrestrial digital broadcast formats used overseas, such as DVB-H*4 (Europe) and DMB*5 (South Korea). This reduces the number of external components or software processing load required to build an AV navigation and infotainment system, lowering the system cost and shortening the development time. Finally, the SH7777 (SH-NaviJ3) is the same size (21 mm × 21 mm) as its predecessor, the second product in the SH-NaviJ Series, which contributes to compact system design.
(3) Numerous high-performance on-chip peripheral functions to support multimedia applications
			For audio processing, the SH7777 (SH-NaviJ3) integrates a 24-bit dedicated audio DSP with support for a variety of compression formats, including AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), MP3, and WMA (Windows Media Audio).* 6 This 24-bit dedicated audio DSP also processes the AAC Plus (Advanced Audio Coding Plus)* 7 audio compression format used by terrestrial digital broadcasts. Performing this processing in hardware rather than in software, as was previously the case, reduces the processing load on the CPU by the equivalent of about 50 MHz according to comparisons done by Renesas Technology. This makes it possible to further reduce the power consumption of the CPU. There is also a built-in edge-emphasis function for high quality display of terrestrial digital broadcasts. It prevents blurring when QVGA-format (320×240 pixels) video is enlarged to VGA or WVGA (832×496 pixels) size. Other on-chip peripheral modules essential to car navigation and infotainment systems include a GPS* 8 baseband processor module, a TS interface for receiving terrestrial digital broadcasts, and CAN* 9 and MOST* 10 interfaces for a vehicle LAN. This large number of high-performance peripheral functions reduces the number of components required by the system, making it possible to reduce the overall cost while achieving excellent performance.
			Additionally, a wide variety of middleware resources are available for the SH7777 (SH-NaviJ3), including video middleware supporting H.264, MPEG-4, and WMV* 6 , and audio middleware supporting MP3, WMA and AAC Plus (Advanced Audio Coding Plus).
(4) Two-screen display support for implementing a wide range of applications
			The SH7777 (SH-NaviJ3) supports two-screen display. For example, two screens of WVGA graphics images can be displayed at the same time. (When a single screen is used, the maximum display size is WXGA [1,280 × 768 pixels].) This enables, as an example, one screen to be used by the car navigation and infotainment system and a second screen to be used as a rear monitor for the backseat passengers. The range of possible applications expands enormously. Of the two input-output signalsystems, one can be used to generate 24-bit color digital RGB output, enabling the display of subtle color gradations.

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