PRELIMINARY SPECIFICATION
2-1
Overview
Chapter 2
by Gert Slavenburg
2.1
INTRODUCTION
In this document, the generic PNX1300 name refers
to the PNX1300 Series, or the PNX1300/01/02/11
products.
PNX1300 is a successor to the TM-1300, TM-1100 and
TM-1000 media processors. For those familiar with the
TM-1300, the new features specific to the PNX1300 are
summarized in
Section 2.6
. For those familiar with the
TM-1100, the new features specific to the PNX1300 are
summarized in
Section 2.7
. For those familiar with the
TM-1000, new features for the PNX1300 are summa-
rized in
Section 2.8
.
2.2
PNX1300 FUNDAMENTALS
PNX1300 is a media processor for high-performance
multimedia applications that deal with high-quality video
and audio. These applications can range from low-cost,
dedicated systems such as video phones, video editing,
digital television, security systems or set-top boxes to re-
programmable, multipurpose plug-in cards for personal
computers. PNX1300 easily implements popular multi-
media standards such as MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, but its
orientation around a powerful general-purpose CPU
(called the DSPCPU) makes it capable of implementing
a variety of multimedia algorithms, both open and propri-
etary. PNX1300 is also easily configured in multiple pro-
cessor configurations for very high-end applications.
More than just an integrated microprocessor with unusu-
al peripherals, the PNX1300 is a fluid computer system
controlled by a small real-time OS kernel running on a
very-long instruction word (VLIW) processor core.
PNX1300 contains a DSPCPU, a high-bandwidth inter-
nal bus, and internal bus-mastering DMA peripherals.
Software compatibility between current and future Trime-
dia processor family members is at the source-code and
library API level; binary compatibility between family
members is not guaranteed.
Defining software compatibility at the source-code level
gives Philips the freedom to strike the optimum balance
between cost and performance for all chips in the family.
A powerful compiler and software development environ-
ment ensure that programmers never need to resort to
non-portable assembler programming. Programmers
use the library APIs and multimedia operations from C
and C++ source code.
PNX1300 is designed both for use as an accelerator in a
PC environment or as the sole CPU in cost-effective
standalone systems. In standalone system applications,
the PNX1300 external bus allows for glueless connection
of 8-bit wide ROM, EEPROM, or Flash memory for code
storage. The external bus also allows intermixing of
PCI2.1 master/slave peripherals and 8-bit simple periph-
erals, such as UARTs and other 8-bit microprocessor pe-
ripherals. This powerful external bus architecture gives
system designers a variety of options to configure low-
cost, high-performance system solutions.
Because it is based on a general-purpose CPU,
PNX1300 can also serve as a multifunctional PC en-
hancement vehicle. Typically, a PC must deal with multi
standard video and audio streams; and applications re-
quire both decompression and compression. While the
CPU chips used in PCs are becoming capable of low-
resolution, real-time video decompression, high-quality
decompression
—
not to mention compression
—
of stu-
dio-resolution video is still out of reach. Further, users
expect their systems to handle live video and audio with-
out sacrificing system responsiveness.
PNX1300 enhances a PC system by providing real-time
multimedia with the advantages of a special-purpose,
embedded solution
—
low cost and chip count
—
and
the
advantages of a general-purpose processor
—
repro-
grammability. For PC applications, PNX1300 far sur-
passes the capabilities of fixed-function multimedia
chips.
Future media processor family members will have differ-
ent sets of interfaces appropriate for their intended use.
2.3
PNX1300 CHIP OVERVIEW
Key features of PNX1300 include:
A very powerful, general-purpose VLIW processor
core (the DSPCPU) that coordinates all on-chip
activities. In addition to implementing the non-trivial
parts of multimedia algorithms, the DSPCPU runs a
small real-time operating system driven by interrupts
from the other units.
Independent DMA-driven multimedia I/O units that
properly format data to make software media pro-
cessing efficient.
DMA-driven multimedia coprocessors that operate
independently and in parallel with the DSPCPU to
perform operations specific to important multimedia
algorithms.