QuickLogic Launches VEE for Next-Generation Mobile Multimedia Products

March 13, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

Based on an iridix core licensed from Apical Ltd., VEE provides TV-quality visual experience on mobile multimedia devices, QuickLogic said.

The proprietary VEE technology provides contrast optimization for a range of mobile consumer and prosumer devices.

According to QuickLogic, it addresses the mobile industry's need to provide consumers with a TV-quality viewing experience while extending battery life.

"Multimedia capabilities have become the key selection criteria for mobile devices because they are core to the user experience," said Brian Faith, QuickLogic vice president of solutions marketing.

"Apple's success with the iPhone has prompted the entire mobile device value chain into finding novel ways of enhancing the visual experience of the consumer. Mobile liquid crystal displays (LCDs) provide only limited contrast, easily washing out images in bright ambient light or with sunlight reflections," Faith said.

"The traditional response to resolve this problem has been to increase the LCD backlight, but that has a negative effect on battery life. The VEE technology provides a best-in-class alternative to this approach, providing both visual enhancement and improved battery life at the same time for the use cases most critical to mobile products being launched now and in the coming years."

By remapping display data to enhance subregional variations, VEE improves the viewability of images and video without affecting on-screen graphics, an important use case when consumers have a split-screen between web browsing and mobile TV or YouTube functionality, QuickLogic said.

According to the company, VEE also allows a mobile device to provide a superior user experience in outdoor and bright ambient light environments without increasing the LCD backlight, thus preserving battery life.

In indoor or low ambient light conditions, VEE allows the mobile device to operate with a lower LCD backlight while maintaining the visual experience, a common use case when watching movies on a mobile device during an airplane flight. VEE architecture settings can be updated in real-time, adapting the algorithm as the ambient lighting conditions change.

QuickLogic and Apical Ltd. partnered to architect and develop the blend of Apical algorithms with QuickLogic video enhancement algorithms and ViaLink programmable fabric for mobile and portable multimedia products. The iridix algorithm licensed from Apical was developed to model the methods that the human eye uses to adapt viewed scenes and images to changing ambient light conditions.

Apical provided QuickLogic an exclusive license for implementing the iridix core in silicon for the mobile market. According to Apical, the patented iridix technology improves the viewability of images and video displayed on mobile device LCDs by adapting the image content to the display dynamic range.

The VEE technology will be included in the QuickLogic library of proven system blocks (PSBs) and can be implemented in multiple silicon platforms, being delivered to OEMs and original design manufacturers (ODMs) as a customer specific standard product (CSSP).

To improve display quality, the iridix technology has been supplemented by additional image and video enhancement blocks such as dithering, hue rotation, color correction and nonlinear sharpness filtering. Additionally, the QuickLogic programmable fabric is used to adapt the VEE-enabled platforms to the application, baseband processors and display technologies used in the mobile market.

According to QuickLogic, the autonomous nature of the VEE PSB eliminates the need for complex software algorithms to run on the host processor, reducing design effort from the OEM/ODM. QuickLogic said onboard programmable fabric enables design flexibility for customization of the CSSP to customer requirements. Packaging supports both small form factor ball grid array (BGA) and wafer level chip scale packaging (WL-CSP).

VEE is available now as a PSB for the QuickLogic PolarPro family of programmable platforms. It is also being integrated as a hard logic implementation in the next generation of the ArcticLink platform line, with sampling expected in 3Q 2008.

"We are thrilled to have this opportunity to extend our leadership in mobile platform design by addressing industry challenges in getting the most out of multimedia display technology," said Dr. Tim Saxe, QuickLogic CTO and senior engineering executive. "Using Apical's proven technology in our VEE PSB enables our customers to meet the rising consumer demand for a high-quality mobile image and video viewing experience," Saxe said.

Source: QuickLogic Corp.