SOCs for set-top boxes, television monitors, disk players, and mobile media players have or soon will have HD capability. But another aspect of this evolutionone that could prove even more challenging to SOC designers and test engineersis that, along with HD video comes a significant increase in the quality of the accompanying audio.
With per-sensor pixel growth slowing, how else can digital-still-camera manufacturers differentiate from each other? How does this differentiation bring them into greater competition with videocameras? To what degree will camera phones supplant them both? And where will sensor suppliers turn to continue filling their fabs?
By Jrgen Neuhusler, Senior Systems Engineer, Texas Instruments
As portable devices get smaller, battery sizes need to be reduced for smaller available spaces. Average power demand also needs to be lowered through power-saving modes of operation.
