The industry has seen a tremendous amount of innovation in digital cameras over the past 5-10 years. However, both the size and cost of digital camcorders have been driven--and limited--by existing DV tape and DVD disc technology. Technological progress and cost reductions in solid state (flash) memories, as well as the growing use of micro drives have made it possible to store greater and greater amounts of content. Given the recent advances in digital video compression with the development of the H.264/AVC (main profile) standard, users can now store one hour of true high definition video (720P60 or 1080i60) and four hours of standard definition video on a 4 GB flash device. This ability to store large amounts of content on a smaller device makes the high definition experience a reality for the mainstream user.
Capitalizing on these advances in technology, Ambarella has developed a fully integrated system-on-chip (SoC) based on its patent-pending H.264 video compression implementation. Ambarella’s platform has integrated all the required system functions onto one chip, replacing current tape-based solutions requiring six or more chips and surpassing current product quality and convenience. The SoC integrates the HD video processing/compression, image sensor processing, audio processing, system functions and operates at less than one watt of power.
The platform, which is available in multiple versions for different requirements, has been specifically designed to achieve the right size, cost and convenience required to deliver a hybrid digital camera with high definition recording at a mainstream consumer price-point.
