NEC today announced the availability of new systems-on-chip (SoCs) in the EMMA Mobile series. EMMA Mobile/EV is capable of processing high-definition (HD) content and 3D graphics with very low power consumption. The new EMMA Mobile/EV SoCs, optimized for the portable device market including portable multimedia players and mobile tablets, integrate ARM’s high-end Cortex™-A9 CPU core and a high-performance HD-capable audio-visual (A/V) engine for decoding a multitude of digital video and audio formats. Two versions of the device are available: EMMA Mobile/EV1 with one embedded Cortex-A9 CPU core and EMMA Mobile/EV2 with two embedded Cortex-A9 CPU cores.

According to Techno Systems Research 2009, the global market for portable multimedia devices has grown to 250 million units in 2010 and is expected to increase continuously as evidenced by the variety of portable devices recently released to the market. In addition, embedded systems are becoming multi-functional with high performance, and the mobile market is expected to evolve into a market of multimedia data processors with higher performance.

Samples of the new EMMA Mobile/EV chips are scheduled to be available in July 2010 priced at US$50 per unit. Mass production is scheduled for December 2010 and expected to reach one million units per month by 2011. More information about NEC Electronics’ EMMA Mobile series can be found at http://www.necel.com/mobile/en/emma_mobile/index.html. (Pricing and availability are subject to change without notice.)