Display and Deflection Processor from MICRONAS INTERMETALL processes many picture formats (9807)
Video back-end for multimedia TV set
Munich, November 12, 1998 -
At Electronica '98 MICRONAS INTERMETALL presents its new Display and Deflection Processor, the DDP 3310B. In addition to standard TV formats, this mixed-signal IC is also capable of processing video signals from digital sources for displaying on 4:3 and 16:9 television picture tubes. Up to now, three ICs and additional circuitry were required for the capabilities now offered by the DDP 3310B. The new IC is mainly aimed at applications in television receivers with multimedia and Internet compatibility, as well as in projection units.
Modern TV receivers must be able to handle different scanning rates and picture formats, e.g. 100/120-Hz deflection, progressive scan, on-screen display (OSD), as well as different picture formats such as 4:3 and 16:9. Multimedia-compatible sets must also be able to display moving pictures in the typical PC formats VGA or SVGA whereby, especially on wide-screen picture tubes, the simultaneous display of several sources is an interesting option.
Signal processing and picture tube control
The DDP 3310B contains all the functions required for signal processing and picture scaling. It transforms digital 4:2:2 and 4:1:1 YUV signals into the RGB color space and provides picture quality enhancement such as digital color transient improvement (DTI) and dynamic luma peaking. Furthermore, the usual setting facilities are provided for brightness, contrast and colour saturation. The digital RGB matrix with the high-speed D-A converters (10 bit/40 MHz) is followed by two analog RGB pixel switches for SCART, teletext or the PIP (picture-in-picture) function.
In addition to the signal processing, the DDP 3310B performs the complete picture tube control functions for cutoff, white drive and beam current limiter. The horizontal and vertical deflection supports 90° and 110° picture tubes with east/west correction; the line deflection has an accuracy of 0.8 ns. Correction of the picture geometry for spherically curved picture tubes is possible via nine parameters (e.g., linearity, S and trapezoidal correction, cushion and corner distortion correction).
The signal processing functions are implemented in hardware; the picture tube control and deflection is done by an integrated processor. The IC is controlled via an I2C interface.
Picture display facilities
The 4:3/16:9 picture conversion and the implementation of the various possible scanning and frame frequencies are controlled via a horizontal scaler. In addition, analog RGB signals (OSD and/or VGA/SVGA) can be overlaid on the internal RGB processing through a corresponding input.
The picture can be positioned wherever required, both horizontally and vertically, zoomed or reduced, and provided with a colored border; several sources can also be displayed adjacently or overlaid one on top of another like PC windows. For OSD functions it is possible to display a box with half the contrast value.
The DDP 3310B also offers non-linear picture representation facilities. In the"panoram" mode, for example, 4:3 sources can be shown so as to fill the screen of 16:9 picture tubes, whereby the left and right borders of the picture are stretched. Conversely, in the"water glas" mode, wide-screen format sources (16:9 or"letterbo") can be shown on 4:3 picture tubes with the corresponding degree of horizontal compression.
The possibility of overlaying wideband, analog RGB signals (SVGA overlay) is of particular interest for displaying WWW pages.
Available package types
The DDP 3310B comes in the 68-pin PLCC package and is available for immediate delivery. Apart from the product documentation, the standard delivery includes a reference design, controller software programmed in C and I2C user software for system matching purposes.