[IDT's new Mobile Multimedia Interconnect for multimedia apps in high-end mobile phones and PDAs speeds up downloads and improves playback quality with less battery drain.]

San Jose, CA -- IDT(TM) (Integrated Device Technology, Inc.), a leading provider of essential mixed-signal semiconductor solutions that enrich the digital media experience, introduced the industry's first synchronous Mobile Multimedia Interconnect(TM) (M2I), fully-optimized for multimedia applications in high-end mobile handsets and personal digital assistant devices. A significant architectural advance over previous generation interfaces, the M2I performs up to six times faster with ninety percent less battery drain. High-end handset users can reliably playback multimedia of unsurpassed quality with minimal impact to their "talk time" and battery life. For handset suppliers, the sophisticated interface of the M2I enables the processor to support additional differentiating functionality such as Bluetooth, WiFi and global positioning systems (GPS) -- a significant competitive advantage in mobile handsets.

The M2I is designed to work with application processors and baseband processors that make use of an address-data mux (ADM) interface. The ADM interface has a lower input/output (I/O) count and higher bandwidth than other approaches, such as the standard, asynchronous dual-port RAMs and embedded serial interfaces commonly found in high-end mobile handsets. The M2I uses fifty percent fewer processor I/O pins, freeing those pins to support desired differentiating functionality. Moreover, the M2I also deploys eight dynamically programmable I/Os that the processor can use to control and/or monitor other devices, enabling the handset designer to add even more differentiating functionality.

"Handset and service providers want to meet surging consumer demand for multimedia services that are easy-to-use, fast to download without draining the battery before the download finishes. Traditional throughput bottlenecks between the baseband and application processors threaten to slow the widespread adoption of high quality, advanced mobile multimedia services," stated Richard Doherty, director of The Envisioneering Group, a technology assessment and market research corporation. "Think of the IDT M2I as a transmission using a synchronous gearbox with a 6x gear ratio which resolves that bottleneck problem -- and does it efficiently with 90% less battery drain."

"The high-end handset consumer demands high-speed downloads, as well as top-quality playback. However, this speed and quality must be delivered without draining the battery," said Thomas Brenner, vice president and general manager of the IDT Flow Control Management Division. "We identified the interface between the baseband and application processors as a major performance bottleneck and battery drain. It was clear that a new interconnect architecture was needed to solve this problem, so we designed the M2I in close co-operation with leading high-end handset manufacturers and with the pre-eminent processor component provider in this application space."

The M2I architecture achieves its high-performance and low-battery drain using a synchronous clocking scheme that enables the use of an internal counter that eliminates the necessity for multiple addressing. Consequently, the M2I processes 64 Kbits of data in only 4,001 cycles, compared to the 8,000 cycles required by previous-generation devices. Not only can the same amount of data be transferred in half the cycles, but also the cycles run three times faster, thus providing an overall performance increase of 6X. All this is accomplished with ninety percent less battery drain.

Pricing and Availability

The new device is currently sampling and is priced at $3.00 in 10,000 unit quantities. For additional information, visit www.IDT.com/go/m2i.

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