The Gennum's Visual Excellence Processing (VXP) technology is this issue's Device Spotlight. Gennum’s VXP technology provides enhanced features through their broadcast-quality algorithms which perform 1080i to 1080p adaptive de-interlacing, dynamic directional interpolation, noise removal and 10-bit image processing. The Gennum ‘s VXP image processing algorithms are implemented through its GF9 family of devices that include GF9351/GF9350 dual channel image processors, GF9320 Scaling Processor , GF9330 SDTV/HDTV Deinterlacer and GF9331 SDTV/HDTV Motion Co-processor.

The GF9350/51 dual channel image processors are Gennum’s low power and low cost System on a chip (SoC) solutions for mixed video and computer graphics applications. These complete SoC provide dual channel support for Video (30/24/20/16/10/8-bit YCbCr) and Graphics (30/24-bit RGB) and can perform de-interlacing, programmable scaling, frame rate conversion and also 10-bit processing of the input video/graphics signals. GF9350/51 ports include four parallel YCbCr/RGB input interface, Industry standard DDR SDRAM interface and 4-wire serial interface or UART for user configuration. Gennum’s VIPER Application Builder software provides an easy way to configure the GF9350/51’s internal architecture according to the requirement.

Other important features of GF9350/51 include:

• Support for all YCbCr and RGB formats up to 2048 lines by 2048 samples
• All SMPTE/VESA standards compatibility
• Film-mode detection and inverse telecine
• Picture-in-picture (PIP), Picture-on-Picture (POP) and Picture-by-Picture (PBP) with alpha blending
• Dual pixel input/output bandwidth up to 250MP/s
• Programmable input capture window
• Picture level control and black level removal for improved dynamic range

Gennum’s GF9320 Scaling Processor is a 24-tap polyphase horizontal and vertical scaler that can perform broadcast quality 10/8-bit scaling of SD/HD video images up to 2048 by 2048 pixels. The horizontal and vertical scaling factors can be independently controlled and arbitrary display modes for custom applications are also supported. The GF9320 provides dedicated serial interface for user configuration, SDRAM interface for image delays and interface to Gennum’s GF9330 de-interlacer. The GF9320 also contains a vertical interpolation filter to perform standalone de-interlacing. Broadcast quality de-interlacing can be achieved by connecting it to the Gennum’s GF9330 and GF9331 devices.

The GF9330 SDTV/HDTVis a 10/8-bit high performance VDSP engine that performs high quality motion adaptive de-interlacing of interlaced digital video signals with clock rates up to 1080p60 with support for arbitrary display modes. It uses multi-directional adaptive filters for edge processing, an adaptive vertical motion filter and an adaptive inter-field motion filter. The GF9330 integrates all required line delays and seamlessly interfaces to off chip SDRAMs that form the required field delays. It can also operate in by-pass mode if no processing is required. Configuration is accomplished through a serial/parallel host interface. Although, GF9330 can operate as a stand-alone de-interlacer but to perform high quality HD/SD de-interlacing with edge and vertical motion detection, it can be connected to GF9331 Motion Co-processor. Together, these two devices can operate as a system in which GF9331 sends edge detection and vertical motion filter control information to the GF9330. These control signals then adaptively switch the GF9330's internal filters on a pixel-by-pixel basis.
 
Gennum’s VXP devices are a great fit for such video and graphics applications as LCD/Plasma Displays, RPTV, Projectors, AV Receivers, Video Processing Systems, Broadcast Format Conversion, HD DVD Players and Cameras, and more.  Please let us know we can help accelerate the design and development of your next-gen video and graphics system.

For more information, visit http://www.gennum.com/ip/