California Micro Devices Launches New Serial Interface Display Controller for Wireless Handsets

MDDI Dual Display and Audio Controller Offers Unprecedented Cost, Footprint and Functionality

MILPITAS, Calif., -- Oct. 04, 2006 -- California Micro Devices (NASDAQ: CAMD) today unveiled a dual display and audio controller for wireless handsets that incorporates the VESA Standard Mobile Display Digital Interface (MDDI)link, which is fully compatible with QUALCOMM’s Mobile Station Modem™ (MSM™) chipset solutions. The new CM5100 features a fully compliant, MDDI based serial client, an integrated display controller with embedded memory that supports primary thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with resolutions up to QVGA (320x240) and secondary displays with up to QCIF+ (176x220) resolution. The CM5100’s unique architecture is optimized for use with today’s most advanced TFT LCD modules that feature drivers integrated directly on the display glass and also allows the use of low cost, RAM-less drivers for non-integrated display modules. In both cases, CM5100-based implementations result in a significantly smaller footprint and lower solution cost than competitive solutions. Additionally, California Micro Devices’ CM5100 is the first integrated display controller with an integrated MDDI compliant audio controller and features advanced audio and video synchronization capabilities.

According to Mike Concannon, vice president of strategic products for QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies, "The new CM5100 controller delivers the complete value proposition of MDDI based display interfaces, including reduced signal count, low power and improved ease of design, all in a small form factor. With support for audio streams over the MDDI interface, the CM5100 offers designers the ability to take full advantage of the functionality defined in the MDDI standard."

Mobile Display Trends
With the emergence of advanced multimedia capabilities in mobile handsets, data rates between the handset’s host processor and its display and camera modules have steadily increased. Wider data busses operating at higher frequencies have been implemented between these modules, resulting in significant increases in power consumption, routing complexity, sensitivity to EMI radiation and cost. To alleviate these concerns, Qualcomm defined the MDDI specification, which consists of a high speed low power interface carrying video, audio and control packets to connect the host processor to the display module. Qualcomm’s chipsets integrate an MDDI host and an MDDI client solution is required adjacent to the display module to direct the data streams to the appropriate resources.

Today, advanced displays for mobile handsets feature resolutions of QVGA or greater. To address the finer pixel pitch requirements of these small, high resolution displays, manufacturers are adopting new design approaches based upon low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) and amorphous silicon (aSi) TFT architectures that allow the display drivers to be deposited directly on the display’s glass substrate, resulting in a reduced bill of materials.

Key Features
The CM5100 supports all necessary video, audio and control packet types recommended by the MDDI specification. The integrated MDDI client transceiver is Type I (internal mode, 15 cm maximum cable length), consisting of one data pair, one strobe pair and a dedicated power supply pair that can support a data rate of up to 385Mbps. As a result, the CM5100 requires only six lines operating at lower power compared to traditional parallel interfaces that could include up to sixty lines to control both displays and other resources.

The internal video mapper contained in the CM5100 enables it to operate as a display controller with an integrated frame buffer for a main panel of up to QVGA resolution through a standard RGB interface, and support a secondary “smart” display through a CPU type of interface. Audio packets can also be transferred through the MDDI pipe and be redirected to a local stereo audio codec through the I2S interface. The I2C host interface allows connecting the CM5100 to any I2C slave device allowing it to be controlled through the MDDI interface.

The CM5100 is developed in a low power process technology and features extensive power management modes to provide minimal power consumption. TheCM5100, housed in a 100 bump, 0.5mm pitch Wafer Level Chip Scale Package with a form factor of just 5.0mm x 5.0mm, is the industry’s smallest MDDI based display controller.

Pricing and Availability
Evaluation boards and chip samples of the CM5100 are available now. Chip pricing starts at $6.00 in 1,000 unit quantities. Volume production is scheduled for Q4 2006.

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