US/ASIA : QUALCOMM and Seiko Epson announced that Epson has developed a 3G LCD controller chip, the S1D13751, with integrated Mobile Display Digital Interface ( MDDI ) technology by QUALCOMM.

The MDDI standard is an optimized high-speed serial interface solution that directly connects LCD panels and camera modules to the Mobile Station Modem™ ( MSM™ ) chipset, enabling the most advanced, reliable LCD panel and camera technology available today. MDDI is supported by select QUALCOMM CDMA2000® and WCDMA ( UMTS ) solutions.

“Epson is pleased to support MDDI. Its high-speed, low pin count and low power consumption make it an ideal interconnect technology that will strengthen Epson’s LCD panel and camera module interfacing product lines for CDMA2000 and WCDMA handsets,” said Yasumasa Otsuki, managing director and chief executive of the Semiconductor Operations Division for Seiko Epson Corporation. “The MDDI solution complements our business strategy, enabling us to offer our customers the highest quality interface solution available today for their high-resolution wireless graphics requirements.”

“QUALCOMM’s MDDI solution is a high-speed, low-power, low-cost interconnect technology that reduces the number of required interconnection wires, shortening development and testing cycles for both OEMs and LCD manufacturers for faster time to market,” said Luis Pineda, senior vice president of marketing and product management for QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies. “MDDI’s simplified design architecture has gained significant interest in the LCD market, providing LCD manufacturers with an advanced solution that differentiates their product offerings.”

MDDI, a high-speed digital packet serial interface, is available on select QUALCOMM chipsets, including the MSM6150™, MSM6550™, MSM6800™, MSM7500™ and MSM7600™ chipsets for CDMA2000® and the MSM6275™, MSM6280™ and MSM7200™ chipsets for WCDMA. Previous interface solutions required up to 90 wires; MDDI requires a minimum of just four wires plus power for bi-directional data transfer that delivers a maximum bandwidth of up to 3.2 Gbits per second. The MDDI standard increases reliability and reduces power consumption in clamshell phones due to the significant decrease in the number of wires that run across the handset’s hinge to interconnect the digital baseband controller with the LCD display. This reduction of wires also allows handset manufacturers to reduce development costs by simplifying clamshell or sliding handset designs.

Epson’s S1D13751 advanced LCD controller is a QVGA LCD controller chip that supportsHardware “rotation,” “Picture-in-Picture Plus” ( a variable size window with overlay functions ) and 2D BitBLT. The chip supports MDDI Type I, with speeds up to 400 Mbps and has a dual port 1.3Mega pixel camera interface, hardware JPEG encoder/decoder. The S1D13751 provides impressive support for CDMA cellular solutions requiring Digital Video support. The first samples are expected to be available in the first quarter of calendar 2005. Epson will provide the evaluation board that connects with the MSM board through MDDI link directly in the second quarter of calendar 2005.