Sharp Microelectronics Expands Collaboration with Fisher-Price for Latest Pixter Multi-Media System
Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas’ System Solutions design win for the new Fisher-Price® Pixter® Multi-Media portable device affirms Sharp’s position as a cost-effective design solution source for video-intensive products. The solution set for Fisher-Price includes Sharp’s LH79524 System-on-Chip (SoC) and custom TFT-LCD panel, as well as design support and software from Actimagine.
Pixter Multi-Media is the latest Pixter hand-held digital creativity system for kids. It has been redesigned to incorporate full-motion video, in addition to more than 100 built-in digital tools, games and creative activities. Children can now watch and create cartoon and live-action videos through a high performance TFT screen.
The Pixter Multi-Media hand-held device features Sharp’s SoCs as the embedded platform. The ARM7-based 32-bit LH79524 SoC, part of Sharp’s BlueStreak™ family of SoCs, provides a strategic balance of performance, integration and power efficiency to the video-capable Pixter Multi-Media.
Sharp Microelectronics continues to collaborate with Fisher-Price on future design projects, delivering new performance enhancements that help Fisher-Price meet the growing demands for video capabilities in the rapidly expanding multimedia toy market.
Sharp Microelectronics began its collaboration with Fisher-Price in 2003, providing its 16/32-bit LH75411 SoC as the embedded CPU for Color Pixter, a predecessor to the Multi-Media version. Building on this foundation, Sharp provides a comprehensive design solution that optimizes hardware, software and support to meet the increased media requirements for the newest Pixter device.
“As toys become more sophisticated, they also must remain user-friendly and adapt to today’s on-the-go lifestyle,” said Noel Giamello, Senior Director, Systems Solutions Business Unit, Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas. “Sharp’s components and tools are helping Fisher-Price to anticipate the market trend with toys such as the Pixter Multi-Media with its video capabilities, portability and child-friendly design.”
Systems Design Advantage
Sharp customized the high performance TFT-LCD screen to meet the specific design goals for the Pixter system. The display offers more vibrant color, enhanced contrast, and an overall better user experience than the previous Pixter model’s CSTN screen.
Additionally, Sharp’s applications team worked with Fisher-Price to fine tune the Pixter design for optimized performance and bill of materials value.
“When we decided to feature streaming video on the new Pixter system, we faced the challenge of incorporating these complex multimedia features into a compact, power-efficient design,” said Ron Baker, Vice President of Product Engineering, Fisher-Price. “Drawing on our existing collaboration with Sharp for our platform, we were able to tap into Sharp’s broader component solutions and expertise in the embedded market to build a device that meets our power, performance and time-to-market goals.”
“Sharp’s established relationship with Fisher-Price on its product roadmap gave us a deep understanding of their goals for the new Pixter,” added Al Franceschino, Senior Business Development Manager, Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas. “This allowed us to customize a package of hardware and software that best matched their needs.”
Sharp’s line of BlueStreak SoCs were created to meet the increasing performance demands of mobile consumer electronics, including smart toys, portable game applications, and portable media players.
Enhanced Video Performance
Sharp’s LH79524 SoC is a cost-effective choice for video-intensive devices such as the Pixter, enabling design engineers to achieve high video performance and low power consumption with an ARM7-based device. As part of the Pixter Multi-Media design, the LH79524 supports quality streaming video without any hardware acceleration.
Sharp’s LH79524 SoC for the Pixter runs Actimagine’s video codec and vector graphics rendering engine that boost the video capabilities of the ARM7-based SoC.
The Actimagine software contains a new compression/decompression method that is four times faster than MPEG4 – facilitating advanced video performance with lower CPU requirements and extended battery life.
“Fisher-Price’s Pixter Multi-Media reflects the growth of video functionality in the smart toy market,” said André Pagnac, Chief Executive Officer of Actimagine. “Actimagine’s codec for Sharp’s SoCs enhances the media capabilities and improves power efficiency – two key factors in this cost-sensitive growing market.”
Other key features of Sharp’s enhanced LH79524 SoC that led to its selection include:
- 32-bit data bus
- Onboard cache & SRAM
- Higher integration at a low cost
- Design flexibility: Supports all types of Flash Memory; programmable LCD controller supports up to 65,536 colors
- TV-like 30 frames-per-second video and vector graphics
- Power efficiency through four low-power modes
- Boot from NAND Flash
- High performance: Clock speed 76.2 MHz
- Touch screen interactivity management
In addition to its SoC products, Sharp’s support library includes a broad range of design tools and documentation, including a low-cost development kit from Logic Product Development. Sharp has also partnered with third parties to create ARM-based product development systems, software design tools and evaluation boards. This comprehensive portfolio is available via Sharp’s BlueStreak Software Library, http://able.sharpsma.com/.
The Fisher-Price Pixter Multi-Media featuring the Sharp LH79524 SoC platform will be demonstrated at Sharp’s booth #1425 during the Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley on April 4-6, 2006.
About Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas
Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas, Camas, Wash., is the U.S.-based microelectronics sales and marketing unit of Japan’s Sharp Corporation. In 2001, Sharp also designated Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas as its global development center for Microcontroller and System-on-Chip products based on the popular ARM7 and ARM9 cores. Sharp is a worldwide developer of core digital technologies that are playing an integral role in shaping the next generation of electronic products for consumer and business needs. Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas offers breakthrough memory, LCD, optoelectronics, CCD, RF/IR, microcontroller and System-on-Chip components, along with packaging and integration skills that help design engineers throughout North and South America bring their ambitious ideas to market. Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas is dedicated to improving people's lives through the use of advanced technology and a commitment to innovation, quality, value and design. For more information, visit www.sharpsma.com.
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