Dialog Semiconductor to enable rapid prototyping of optimized audio/video portable devices and smartphones with NEC Electronics

Dialog Semiconductor plc (FWB: DLG), a leading provider of highly integrated innovative power management semiconductor solutions, has collaborated with NEC Electronics Corporation (NEC Electronics) to develop a design platform based on NEC Electronics' multimedia processor system-on-chips (SoCs) and Dialog's power management platform ICs. As the market for portable devices, including audio players, video players and smartphones continues to show strong growth, the ability to enable designers to rapidly create differentiated portable devices that exploit advances in power management becomes a key success factor.

The design platform combines NEC Electronics' EMMA Mobile(TM) 1 application processor with Dialog's DA9052 configurable power management platform integrated circuit (PMIC) to optimize performance and extend the battery life of portable devices. The combination gives connectivity to peripherals and modules for prototyping and iteration of application processor based system designs. Additionally, it provides developers the freedom to be more innovative and productive in the development of middleware and user applications for portable devices.

"NEC Electronics' commitment to high performance is clearly demonstrated with the company's family of EMMA Mobile SoCs, meeting the needs of portable audio/visual (A/V) devices, such as multimedia players and mobile televisions," commented Dr Jalal Bagherli Dialog Semiconductor's CEO. "This is an important collaboration allowing Dialog to participate closely with NEC Electronics to address our customers' next-generation portable designs, particularly in the Japanese and Asian market," added Bagherli.

The EMMA Mobile 1 from NEC Electronics is a next-generation multimedia processor with enhanced functionality and low power consumption. EMMA Mobile 1 integrates various built-in interfaces such as SD card interface, USB, SPI, UART, PCM, IIC, and NTSC. The DA9052 integrates 4 DC/DC buck converters and 10 programmable LDOs on-chip, these LDOs can be connected to the DC/DC converters to improve system efficiency. Each output can be connected in series or parallel, adding further flexibility. To further optimize the processor energy-per-task, dynamic voltage scaling can be used on up to 5 outputs and Dialog's SmartMirror dynamic biasing is implemented on all linear regulators.