Silicon Image Incorporated introduced today its latest development and newest member in the camerIC camera processor IP core family, namely the camerIC-18. With the capability of processing such a large resolution, this 18-megapixel (MP) image signal processing (ISP) technology is targeted to be integrated into digital still camera and video Sysyem-on-a-Chip (SoC) application processors for mobile devices such as cell phones, portable multimedia players, as well as netbooks. This is absolutely disturbing, knowing that sometime in the near future, mobile phone cameras will have resolutions larger than my digital SLR.

"Mobile phone cameras of increasing resolution are becoming pervasive throughout the market,” said Will Strauss, principal analyst with Forward Concepts. “It’s just a matter of time before the feature sets commonly found in DSCs will be integrated into mobile devices and the camerIC-18 camera processor intends to accelerate this market transition.”

The camerIC-18 supports resolutions ranging from 5MP, all the way up to 18MP, coming in a single low-cost / low-power architecture. As to actually deliver higher than 12MP resolution, the camerIC-18 IP core now embeds sophisticated bad pixel detection / correction and noise reduction techniques to make sure that image quality is maintained, even when mixed with the lower cost, high-resolution CMOS sensors commonly found in mobile devices. Also, the camerIC-18 IP core supports wide dynamic range processing, digital image stabilization, as well as an extensive set of standard features including lens shade correction, auto focus and auto exposure.

“Since 2002, Silicon Image has led the market in delivering cost-effective, low-power camera processor designs for use in mobile applications,” said Ron Richter, director of business development at Silicon Image, Inc. “The camerIC-18 IP core continues this tradition by providing mobile SoC developers with market leading digital still camera and camcorder capabilities and flexibility in choosing CMOS sensor suppliers.”


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