ARM IQ Magazine

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Connected Home & Life

Yahoo! TV Widgets give you thebest of the Internet in harmonywith the simplicity and reliability

of your television. TV Widgets deliver aCinematic Internet experience by bringingyour favorite Web services like, eBay,Flickr, and Twitter, to the TV. Enablingyou to view episodes of your favorite TV showwatch a movie, check the latest news and

sports scores, shop on eBay or catch up withyour friends on Twitter. By pressing one buttonon your remote you can bring up theTV Widget Dock, select a TV Widget, andview the content without missing a momentof your favorite TV show. No more arguingover the remote, as everyone gets to enjoywhat they want at the same time! You cancheck out the latest news while other familymembers are still enjoying the TV show.

TV Widgets -Experience

GainedBy Jim Wallace, Ashley Stevens, Frank Kruszenski, ARM

Y

The Yahoo! TV Widget Engine is one the most demanding

software stacks, embedded in many modern DTVs. With an

open environment and open Software Development Kit

(SDK), the Widgets themselves are increasing in number andcomplexity. The Yahoo! TV Widget Engine allows developers

to create visually beautiful user experiences, taking full

advantage of the hardware and software on the latest DTV

systems. The DTV system needs to meet certain minimum

specifications to ensure the most compelling user experience.

These specifications include CPU performance, memory

size/bandwidth and GPU standards compliance.

This paper will address these requirements, based on the

experience that Yahoo! and ARM have gained, in optimizing

TV Widget initiation, launch and runtime, on an ARMpow-

ered DTV system.


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Yahoo! TV Widgets are examples ofrich internet applications (RIAs). This translates into the ability tolaunch and run an application with the same response time and dis-play that usually accompanies desktop and laptop personal comput-

29


The User Experience

Figure 1: TV Widgets provide more than News, Weather, Sports.

They are a portal for advanced online services.

ing experiences. Applications which are continuously updated andfully interactive are provided to TV viewers.

Every member of the household can create a profile of their ownpersonal selection of TV Widgets. With each TV Widget a Snippet shortcut can be created for quick access to the content you want.By pressing your remote, you can connect directly to your friendsphotos on Flickr, buy an item on eBay, or see an episode of yourfavorite TV show.

Some Widgets will employ the use of special remote control but-

tons. Other Widgets may involve the launch of a virtual keyboard fsuch things as entering item purchase information.

ARM and Yahoo! started theircollaboration to enable the optimization of the Yahoo! TV Widgetengine in 2008. That work has enabled the two companies tospecify the requirements of a DTV system and a block diagram ofa modern DTV is shown in Figure 2.

Development Experience


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Figure 2: DTV SoC and System, and ARMprovided IP

In modern DTVs, a highly integrated Systemonachip (SoC)

executes much of the control and data throughput processing. Forthose functions, such as audio processing, or nonstandard videoprocessing, the CPU must have the capacity to provide sufficientcomputational power.

This is also the case for the processing of Yahoo! TV Widgets.Based on the work that ARM and Yahoo! have done, we have jointlydeveloped a set of minimum specifications for DTVs to successfullyrun the Yahoo! Widget engine:

In addition to the above systemspecification, the memory and especially memory bandwidthcapacity are key elements.

The SoC is tasked with a multitude of operations in a modern DTVThey include antialiasing, deinterlacing, motion estimation/com-

pensation, color processing, and resolution scaling. Imageprocessing is usually the most memory intensive task in HDTVs.The memory traffic generated by image processing is similar to thof the MPEG2/H.264 decoding process. Due to the complexity ofimage processing compute functions, the memory bandwidths cabe as high as four times as those of the decoding function.

One very straightforward method toimprove the memory system performance is to utilize a L2

cache of sufficient size.

ARM has created a profile, shown in Figure 5, based on the expected web browsing performance. This study focuses on we

page miss rates using the Firefox Internet Browser, and theSunspider benchmark as the test platform. For example, if aSoC is equipped with a L2 cache size of 64 KB, we have foundthat the probability of rendering and displaying a web page,once already rendered, would be less than 50%. From the datARM recommends a L2 cache size of 256 KB as a minimum.

Local Miss Rate

DTV System Components Minimum Specifications

ARM CPU ARM1176JZS/CortexA8/CortexA9

No. of cores 1

Clock Speed 600/400/300 MHzDhrystone MIPS 720

Memory for Widget Engine, exclusively

DRAM 256 Mbytes

NAND 128 Mbytes

Video RAM 30 Mbytes

Bus Bandwidth 330 Mbytes/sec

Graphics

Library SDL

Hardware Acceleration Blit with alpha blending, Stretch Blit

Media Player Decoding video in these formats:

H.264, Windows Media 9

Decoding audio in these formats:

MP3, AAC, AC3, WMA

Transport protocols for video:

HTTP, HTTPS, RTSP, RTP, MMS

Audio playlist formats:

M3U, XSPF, WPL, PLS

Container and codec combinations:

MOV/MP4: H.264, AAC, AC3

ASF: WMV, WMA

MP2TS: H.264, AAC, AC3

Decoding bitrates of at least 3 Mbit/s

Figure 3: DTV System Requirements for Yahoo! TV Widgets.

DTV Memory System

Applications No. of Streams Effective MinimumBandwidth Memory

Capacity

MPEG2/H.264 2 1.6 GB/s

Image Processing 1 3.2 GB/s

Computing OS 1 1.+ GB/s

3D Graphics 1 1.3 GB/s(optional)

HDTV SoC Total 7.1 GB/s 256 + MB

Figure 4: Memory Bandwidth Requirements for DTV

Processor L2 Cache

L2 Size (KB) L2 Cache Size 8Way

64 53.62%

128 31.60%

256 19.23%

512 13.64%

1024 10.60%

Figure 5: SoC L2 Cache Sensitivity Analysis


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TV Widgets are powered by theYahoo! Widget Engine and can be developed by third party ISVs,OEMs or Yahoo. The TV API provides access to popular Internettechnologies such as Konfabulator, JAVASCRIPT and XML, whichhas been reengineered specifically for consumer electronicsdevices. Consumers can then access the Widget gallery service and

download their favorite widgets for display on the TV.

ARM has been working for several years in optimizing runtime per-

formance, especially for Open Source elements, across all types ofconsumer electronic devices.

JavaScript is the primary programming language for Web 2.0 appli-cations such as Yahoo! Widgets and one key area ARM has focusedon is Justintime compilation (JIT) or dynamic translation ofJavascript.

ARM has been involved in the optimization of the performance ofseveral of the new JavaScript Virtual Machines that include JITcompilers for acceleration. These include:

1. SpiderMonkey/TraceMonkey (used in the Mozilla Firefoxweb browser)

2. Tamarin (used in the Adobe Systems Flash 10 Player)3. Squirrel Fish Extreme (used in the Open Source Webkit

web browser)4. V8 (used in the Google Chrome web browser)

High performance of the Virtual Machines that execute JavaScript iscrucial to providing fast user experience, similar to the experienceone could expect from using desktop computing systems. Dueprimarily to the work on the Tamarin nanoJIT code generator, wediscovered that optimization had a very favorable impact on per-formance of several commonly used web runtime engines. In par-

ticular, the derivative work resulted in improving the performancewith the Konfabulator Yahoo! TV Widget engine. The Yahoo! TV

Widget Engine uses a version of the SpiderMonkey JavaScriptVirtual Machine. ARM optimized the performance of the TamarinnanoJIT code generator within the Javascript engine by compilingit to native code. This resulted in a significant performance increasover nonoptimized code.

ARM worked closely with a major DTV supplier to enable Yahoo! TWidgets on their DTV platforms and this resulted in the successfudemonstration of Yahoo! TV Widgets at the CES 2009, in Las VegasThis product line of Connected DTV is currently on sale at majorretail outlets.

There are further advances being made inDTVs. These encompass such elements as displays with highercontrast ratios, and resolution, video/audio processing and video/audio codecs, that are often proprietary, and not Standardsbased. Therefore, the SoC, and its CPU will be required to bemore powerful.

The complexity of interactive TV experiences is likely to increase,with the inclusion of sophisticated video/audio Players. This willplace additional emphasis on the performance of the CPU.Tomorrows DTVs will also likely include graphics processors foradvanced user interfaces, stylish menus, video overlay, and com-

Yahoo! TV Widget Engine

Figure 6: Yahoo! Widget Software Framework

Figure 7: Leveraging Tamarin nanoJIT work optimizesKonfabulator/Yahoo Widget Engine

Future Trends


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posite images. This would require an Open GL ES 2.0 compliantproduct, like the ARM Mali400, multicore GPU.

A compilation of these preferred specifications appears below inFigure 8.

Yahoo! TV Widgets provide a complement ofservices to the TV viewing experience. The acceptance of theseservices will depend on the overall performance of the DTVsystem the experience needs to mimic broadcast TV with fastinteractivity.

ARM has worked closely with Yahoo! to optimize key JavaScriptcomponents in the Konfabulator engine. This has improved the

overall performance of Yahoo! Widgets and will provide a next-generation DTV experience on ARM Powered SOCs.

DTV designers and their SoC suppliers are integrating highperforming CPUs, and now GPUs into their future line ofproducts. These blocks of IP, such as the Cortex family of proces-sors and Mali400 GPUs, available from ARM, work together toprovide futureproof products for Connected TVs.

DTV System Components Preferred Specifications

ARM CPU CortexA9

No. of cores 1

Clock Speed 400 + MHz per core

Dhrystone MIPS 1000 + per core

Memory for Widget Engine, exclusively

DRAM 512 MBytes

NAND 128 MBytes

Video RAM 30 MBytes

Bus Bandwidth 800 MBytes/sec.

Graphics Open GL ES 2.0 compliant

Library SDL

Hardware Acceleration Mali400, 24 cores

Media Player Decoding video in these formats:H.264, Windows Media 9

Decoding audio in these formats:

MP3, AAC, AC3, WMA

Transport protocols for video:

HTTP, HTTPS, RTSP, RTP, MMS

Audio playlist formats:

M3U, XSPF, WPL, PLS

Container and codec combinations:

MOV/MP4: H.264, AAC, AC3

ASF: WMV, WMA

MP2TS: H.264, AAC, AC3

Decoding bitrates of at least 3 Mbit/s

Figure 8: DTV System Requirements for Yahoo! TV Widgets

Summary

END

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and STB manufacturers have often struggled to design the perfectproduct that can meet the communication and media sharing needthat todays consumers are demanding.

Android offers an opportunity to enhance STB capabilities signifi-cantly. Its layered architecture has the ability to support areas suchas Java, pre-integrated web browser and email client, offering newfound flexibility to STB manufacturers to enable new applicationA STB with an open-source operating system such as Android islikely to encourage a larger community of software developers tocreate a wider range of applications that consumers will be able toaccess online. Examples include: Instant messaging and Caller ID on your TV.

Customized information widgets for the TV that scroll breakingnews, weather, sports scores or stock quotes from live sources.

Browse YouTube on TV: Displays the standard video list (toprated, most viewed) - users can select individual videos theywant to watch.

Stay connected on popular social networking sites. Monitor stocks and even conduct trades while watching daily

news or following market movements on TV. Perform online banking transactions, check and pay bills online. Display the selected city/area maps, and driving directions.

Googles Android is creating waves in the designand development of embedded products. Made upof an operating system, middleware and key mobile

applications, Android was initially intended for mobile phone devel-opment but as we have seen it is reaching far beyond mobiledevices and will soon be seen in Digital Photo Frames (DPF), eBookReaders, VoIP End points, Video Conferencing Terminals, DigitalMedia Adaptors (DMA) and other consumer products.

Several companies, software developers and chip manufacturers arelooking forward to Android as it will play a key role in enabling con-sumer devices built on Linux, open source and royalty free soft-ware. Since Google released the first Android platform, in 2008, on

ARM-based hardware, keen interest has been shown from otherembedded device developers that use ARM-based processors.

Proprietary middleware and browsers have meant that consumershave only had access to a small number of applications that comepre loaded on their STB, or can be downloaded from the network.Examples of applications include Electronic Program Guide (EPG),Digital Video Recorder (DVR) menus and Customer service messag-ing. Many have offered limited Internet browsing capabilities, i.e.walled garden portals to Internet services. Both Service Providers

A Set-top Box Enabled by

Googles Android OSBy Mrinmoy Purkayastha, Tata Elxsi

Tata Elxsi engineers are

focused on developing

Android-based products

G

Googles Android Operating System presents a compelling value proposition to the development

of devices that are at the center of the modern digital home. Tata Elxsi engineers are focused on

developing Android-based products that enable consumers to seamlessly share content and make

true convergence a reality.

As a leader in DTV product engineering, Tata Elxsi is working towards a set-top box (STB)incorporating some of the unique features enabled by Android, taking several steps forward in

developing a complete next-generation home entertainment product. This article will explore Tata

Elxsis initiatives in developing an Android-based set-top box focusing the on potential features

and targeted applications.


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Display the weather information of a selected city with forecastand satellite pictures on demand.

Provide personalized information relating to lifestyle, shopping,numerology, astrology, etc. based on the users personalpreferences.

The diagram below shows a high-level software architecture for anAndroid based STB.

The section below discusses some of the key benefits presented byAndroid based STBs:1. New features enabled by Android

Watch streamed video from Netflix, YouTube with DVRfunctionality.

Surf the Web on the TV using Google's WebKit browser. Play games and applications written for mobile phones.

Connect to other devices via UPnP and multiple applicationsrunning simultaneously with the help of a Java Virtual Machine.

2. Ease of programming enabled by Android Anyone can develop Android applications as the SDK is freely

available. Supports third party applications without porting efforts. Android Native Development Kit (NDK) is a companion tool to

the Android SDK that lets Android application developers buildperformance-critical portions of their apps in native code.

3. Middleware enhancements offered by Android Better user interaction: Android applications support Windows,

and each window could have multiple views. With optimizedgraphics powered by custom 2D graphics and 3D graphicsbased on the OpenGL ES standards.

Data transfer between applications could be possible via contentproviders. The data stored in a file system or SQLite database.

Allows engineers to add or delete modules.

4. Lower develop-ment and inte-gration costsfrom adoptingAndroid The Android

frameworkgives exten-sive supportfor developingapplicationssuch asenhanced userinterface,graphics, etc.

Lower integra-tion cost inintegratingLinux based

middlewareas Android isalso Linuxbased.

Android code iswell optimized formobile phones,particularly the

Kernel and ibc.These featuresneed to beaddressed whenporting Android toa STB, which hasmore processingcapabilities, higherdisplay resolutions,refresh rates andOSD (on-screendisplay) color

depth. Today, thereare no extensionsavailable in Androidfor broadcast con-tent, HD multime-dia decode, contentsharing andremote controlinteraction. As aleader in productengineering in theConsumer

Software Architecture of an Android based STB

APPLICATIONS

APPLICATION FRAMEWORKS

LIBRARIES

LINUX KERNEL

ANDROID RUNTIME

Home Browser DTV Applications

Activity Manager

Package Manager

Content ProvidersWindows Manager

Notification Manager

Resource Manager

Others

View System

SOL

MediaFramework

libc

FreeType

Surface

Manager

Open GL/ES Dalvik Virtual Machine

SSL

SQLite

WebKit

WiFi Driver Audio Drivers

Core Libraries

Tuner driver I2C Driver

CI Driver

RCU Driver

DTV

RuntimeSupport

Binder(IPC)Driver

DisplayDriver

PowerManagement

Flash MemoryDriver

DemuxDriver

TimerDriver

JNI

Event Manager

ST ManagerApplication

Manager

Figure-1: Layered Software architecture for Android based STB

Benefits of Enabling DTV on Android:

Challenges inEnabling DTVon Android


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Electronics and Digital TV space, Tata Elxsi is taking several steps todevelop additional features to offer a complete next generationhome entertainment device based on Android.

Key areas being addressed are:

(a) Developing a set of APIs to receive digital broadcasts, displayEPG and make recording feasible. A multimedia extensioncreates a framework for Android based systems featuringlarge-screen, high-definition still and motion pictures.

(b) Enabling seamless content sharing between multiple homedevices. To achieve this Tata Elxsi engineers have ported theDigital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) stack on Android. Thisimplementation is currently available on an ARM-basedprocessor running Android version 1.5.

(c) Leveraging Internet connectivity to allow consumers access tonew services, including IM, custom information widgets andsocial networking applications.

(d) Enhancing the multimedia playback capabilities of an Internetconnected Android-based product. To achieve this Tata Elxsiengineers have integrated Gstreamer-0.10 and FLV parser withAndroid version 1.5 to enable Flash content playback on thedevice.

(e) Adding multimedia streaming capabilities to enable video surveillance, remote monitoring and patient care applications.

(f) Enabling rich GUIs, faster navigation and better Gamerendering capabilities. To achieve this Tata Elxsi engineers aroptimizing the OpenGL ES library available as part of Androidto an ARM-based processor to improve the graphics renderiperformance of the processor.

In the layered architecture of Android every layer has to be modifieto enable DTV. The main challenge remains in making the maximuutilization of available Android code, rather than implementing ncomponents/extensions for DTV.

Tata Elxsi has already developed a Hybride STB reference designusing the Texas Instruments DaVinciTM platform with Linux OS.The constituent modules of the product software (except the A/Vcodecs) run on the ARM processor, including the applications,middleware, HAL, network drivers, demux, and OSD.

Tata Elxsi is now in the process of porting Android and workingon extending the capabilities of this reference design. The softwareis fully portable to other platforms including the OMAP3 with CorteA8 and other ARM-based SOCs.

END


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11/16

Over the last 18 months, various European industry groups such as DVB,EBU, EICTA, and a number of national HDTV specification forums haveconsidered the selection of audio coding systems for next-generation

broadcast applications, including HDTV broadcasts, using MPEG-4 video. In general, theseconsiderations have highlighted two standardized audio coding systems as particularly suied to next-generation transmissions: Dolby Digital Plus (also known as E-AC-3) and DolbyPulse (Dolbys implementation of aacPlus or HE AAC). The EBU Project Group D/MAE, forexample, concluded that the two coding formats are the best candidates for broadcastingHDTV audio services via satellite, cable, terrestrial, and IPTV networks.

Due to the diverse market requirements of different broadcasters/operators and thediffering feature sets of these technologies, it has not generally been possible for thesegroups to recommend a single audio system that suits all applications. For example,

Dolby Digital Plus currently offers comprehensive support for 5.1-channel sound aswell as advanced metadata support. Dolby Pulse will also offer this support in thenear future, along with its already formidable coding efficiency, which today enablesquality stereo services to be transmitted at extremely low data rates.

In addition, over 200 European TV services already broadcast with conventional DolbyDigital audio, so next-generation receivers typically need to be compatible with this format

As DVB does not specify which audcoder should be used for next-generation broadcasts, various broadcaster/manufacturergroups have recently worked collaboratively to gain consensus on the formats desired bybroadcasters, which will then be included in European receivers. The key outcomes for

multichannel format requirements so far are described in Table 1.

In November 2007, DolbyLaboratories acquired Coding Technologies, the leading contributor to the HE AAC standardDolby intends to bring to market a new licensable audio decoder implementation that offersupport for both Dolby Digital Plus (including Dolby Digital) and Dolby Pulse decoding in asingle package. This implementation will reduce the complexity and cost of integrating allaudio technologies in new receivers. It will also simplify product development and testingwhile meeting current requirements for next-generation HDTV services.

The Dolby MS10

MultistreamDecoder Solution

Audio for

Next-Generation

Broadcast Services

O

38


Two multichannel audioformatsDolby DigitalPlus and Dolby Pulseare attractive for next-generation broadcasts for differentreasons, and it is likelythat both will be used

for new Europeanservices.

Key new EuropeanHDTV receiverspecifications includeboth Dolby DigitalPlus and Dolby Pulse.

Dolby is developing anew multiformataudio decoder imple-mentation that willease the inclusion ofdual decoders innew receivers.

European HDTV Receiver Specifications

A New Multiformat Audio Decoding Solution


12/16

Support for audio description services deliveredreceiver-mix style using two simultaneous instancesof Dolby Pulse, Dolby Digital, or Dolby Digital Plusdecoders, respectivelyall for the price of a singledecoder instance.

Support for multiprogram Dolby Digital Plus streams(main and associated audio delivered in the same audistream).

The integrated decoder/transcoder and converter com-bines the ability to decode Dolby Digital, Dolby DigitalPlus, and Dolby Pulse within one product. All of theseinput signals coming into the decoders for the mainaudio are passed through unaltered for output overHDMI and S/PDIF interfaces (Dolby Digital Plus isconverted to Dolby Digital; Dolby Pulse will be passedonce interface definitions are final).* The signals comininto the decoders for associated audio are not passedthrough the system but are decoded and sent to the

mixing engine instead to support the receiver-mix audiodescription.

At the same time, a two-channel downmix is alwayscreated from any of the input formats in order to suppodecoded output (for example, for analog outputs) of abroadcast device. For maximum compatibility and forconnectivity over S/PDIF and HDMI interfaces, a multi-channel decoder for Dolby Pulse is integrated to feed anembedded Dolby Digital encoder with a multichannelsignal (up to 5.1 channels), which then outputs astandard Dolby Digital bitstream (up to 5.1 channels) ata fixed bit rate of 640 kbps.

Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus inputs are handled bthe integrated Dolby Digital Plus decoder/converter. Thisprovides a two-channel downmix for decoded outputswhile converting Dolby Digital Plus streams to DolbyDigital in order to provide maximum compatibility on thS/PDIF output.

The Dolby MS10 Multistream Decoder supports simultaneous decoding of main and associated audio for DolbyPulse and Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital Plus, respectively,to support basic two-channel mixing (Dual-Decode

mode) in order to meet European broadcast specifica-tions for next-generation audio. Audio will be mixed in an externalmixing module outside of the decoder. However, the system willprovide the mixing metadata potentially carried within Dolby DigitaPlus as a serial bitstream on one of its outputs. This mixing meta-data shall be used to control the mix in the external/system-levelmixing module. The implementation of dual decoding (Dual-Decodmode) is optional but strongly recommended.

continued on page

39


Table 1: Multichannel Format Requirements in European HDTV

Specifications, June 2009Notes

1. The EBU Project Group D/MAE states that Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Pulse are the best candidatesfor broadcasting HDTV. It states that both Dolby Digital Plus and HE AAC have advantages, and a singlepreference cannot currently be identified. Dolby Digital (Plus) offers consistently great performance at 448kbps and above; HE AAC offers remarkable performance where data rate is limited.2. The EICTA HDTV receiver specification requires Dolby Digital Plus or Dolby Pulse with transcoder out-put. A single universal audio solution has not been identified, so effectively both will be included unlessmanufacturers can be sure that a single format will be transmitted in all regions where the product is sold.3. Whereas an HE AAC multichannel decoder (with downmix capacity) is required from the start of theservice in October 2008, an HE AAC transcoder will be required after December 31, 2009.4. NorDig requires dual decoders unless the operator can guarantee that a single audio format will beused within the entire market for the product.

The Dolby MS10 Multistream Decoder will offer the following keybenefits:

A universal solution that maintains flexibility for broadcasters tochoose the format that best suits their requirements: DolbyDigital, Dolby Digital Plus, or Dolby Pulse.

Ease of implementation because deliverables, technical support,and testing are available from a single source: Dolby.

Reduced licensing costs compared with the existing Dolby DigitalPlus, Dolby Pulse, and transcoder option.

Full compatibility with Dolby metadata and consumers existingDVD home cinema systems with all transmission formats.

Full multichannel support (transcoder) for Dolby Pulse in additionto Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus decoding and conversion.One Dolby Digital output for all input formats.

Dolby Digital

or

Dolby Digital Plus

or

Dolby Pulse

Stereooutputs

Dolby Digital

bitstream

for existing

home cinemas

Mixing metadata

Pass-through

on HDMI

Audio and metadata

Dolby Pulse

decode

Dolby Digital/

Dolby Digital Plus

decode/convert

Dolby Digital

encode

Figure 1: Block Diagram of the Multiformat Dolby MS10 Multistream Decoder

for Broadcast Devices, TVs, and SetTop Boxes

Note: DTT=Digital Terrestrial Television. Visit www.dolby.com/EuroHDTVSpecs for the latest updates.

* Transmission of Dolby Pulse streams via HDMI or S/PDIF connections will be enablethe future as the specifications necessary to transmit the technology across these interfaces are completed.


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A home network usually refers to a number of digitaldevices deployed in the home that use a broadband

connection to exchange information. In recent years,the home network has progressed from a broadband framework,typically comprising a small number of personal computers andaccessories such as printers and mobile computing devices, toone where entertainment devices are increasingly connected. TheDigital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), along with several othertechnologies, has emerged, with the goal of allowing all mediadevices to interoperate seamlessly.

DLNA wasestablished in 2003 with the vision to integrate the Internet,mobile, and broadcast networks through a seamless, interoperable

network, to enable consumers to easily access and enjoy mediacontent inside and outside the home. To achieve this goal, DLNApublished the Interoperability Guidelines Version1.0 in June 2004and Version1.5 in March 2006 that utilizes Wi-Fi (802.11 X stan-dard body), Bluetooth technology, UPnP (Universal Plug andPlay) and Ethernet to deliver multimedia content to electronicdevices in the home.

Further, DLNA plans to publish Interoperability Guidelines forVersion 2.0 in Q1 2010 to expand its support for additional net-work technologies. In order to ensure that DLNA-certified devices

strictly follow DLNA guidelines and that they interoperate withother DLNA solutions, DLNA runs an interoperability laboratory t

carry out testing and certifications processes under DLNA guide-lines. In July 2009, DLNA confirmed it had issued certification fomore than 5,500 devices, in a number of device categories including TVs, cell phones, network attached storage.*

DLNA is based on existing standardsuch as UPnP, with the addition of classifications for media devicclasses. It has adopted other widely accepted protocols in thevarious layers of the software stack, from physical layer network-ing protocols such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Multimedia over CoaxAlliance (MoCA), to higher level communications and discoverprotocols (IP and UPnP). It also has adopted media formats such

as MPEG and JPEG which have been commonly used in todaysdigital network. While DLNA does not create standards or specifications, it has defined device class categories within a connectedentertainment ecosystem to achieve interoperability between dis-parate devices. In its Guideline Version 1.0, DLNA has outlined thmost prevalent use cases, the DMS (Digital Media Server) and thDMP (Digital Media Player). These two device categories are seeas the core elements for the home network. In the GuidelineVersion 1.5, DLNA further expanded support for additional mobilehandheld device classes, as the multimedia network has evolved allow digital content to be shared in and beyond the home.

About DLNA andNetFront Living Connect

of ACCESSBy ACCESS Co., LTD, Product Marketing DivisionApplication Section

The dream of enjoying

ones digital content

anytime and anywhere

is becoming a reality.

ADLNA and DLNA Interoperability Guideline

*Source: ABI Resear

The Concept of Home Network and DLNA

40


With the proliferation of connected digital devices, the dream of enjoying ones digital content

anytime and anywhere is becoming a reality thanks to the efforts of the Digital Living Connect

Alliance (DLNA) which has created an interoperability standard to enable connectivity among differen

consumer electronics devices. ACCESS CO., LTD., a Japanese software vendor who is a DLNA

promoter member and who is specializing in providing advanced software solutions for mobile and

beyond-PC markets, has developed a comprehensive software solution based on DLNAs Network

Device Interoperability Guidelines.

DLNA Device Classes


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With the popularity of DLNA, home networks haveevolved to where connected entertainment devicesshare rich media content. Consumers are no longerlimited to simply sharing a broadband connectionamong computers. Today, they can connect Blu-rayplayers, HDTVs, media hubs, gaming consoles, digitalphoto frames, printers and home audio systems. Tomeet this market trend, DLNA is preparing to supportnew functions with the attempt to facilitate home-to-mobile and mobile-to-home networks by enhancinginteroperability between mobile devices and other

media devices. In the preparatory stage in 2008 and2009 for delivering DLNA Interoperability GuidelineVersion 2.0, additional enhancements to DLNA were made toinclude adding support for the MoCA standard, enabling photo,video, and audio synchronization across multiple devices, enablingmenu sharing, allowing menu control of other networked devices,adding Wi-Fi protected setup to make configuration of new deviceseasier, and the inclusion of 802.11n, etc. These additionalenhancement to DLNA will accelerate expansion of connectedelectronic devices in and outside the home to bring new,innovative entertainment experience to consumers.

NetFront Living Connect (NFLC) provided by ACCESS CO., LTD.was designed from the beginning as an optimized software solutionfor the home network market. NFLC supports functions such ascontrolling, uploading, downloading, printing, as well as server andplayer functions for various appliances including home gateways/set-top boxes, digital TVs, digital cameras, digital photo frames,HDD recorders and mobile phones. At the same time, NFLC can beintegrated with other ACCESS products such as NetFront Browser(which includes support for Ajax and RSS), TCP/IP, NetFrontBrowser DTV Profile and NetFront Widgets to create an inclusivesolution for diverse home networking requirements.

The Advantages and Challenges of DLNA

Features of NetFront Living Connect (NFLC)

As a comprehensive DLNA solution that looks aheadto the emergence of a multi-media networked worldNFLC intends to provide as much design flexibility aspossible to its customers. It is highly portable, whichallows it to function with any OS or CPU means that can be seamlessly embedded into a wide variety ofconsumer electronics devices. Also, NFLCs portinglayer (Target Adaption Module) is adaptable to a widvariety of hardware and OS environments. NFLCincludes a UI library that enables development ofgraphical user interfaces (GUIs) on any windowingsystem. Meanwhile, NFLCs DLNA devices class ismodular for each function, which means that only thnecessary devices class has to be mounted in eachimplementation.

One of themost important features of NFLC is the inclusion of DigitalTransmission Content Protection over IP (DTCP-IP) and DigitalRights Management (DRM). These two functions work to encryptcontent to be delivered over home networks.

DTCP (Digital Transmission Content Protection) over IP is a linklayer protection scheme that has been developed independently byDLNA and has been adopted by IEEE 1394s and CalbeLabs. JapanARIB (Association of Radio Industries and Business) too, has

approved DTCP-IP as a transmission format to be used for digitalbroadcasting.

By adding DTCP-IP, NFLC can send and receive MPEG2-TS contenand trick play (FF/FW) MPEG2-TS content partially. Examplesinclude NFLC reproducing the DTCP-IP-protected content sent byterrestrial digital media broadcasting and support trick play for thecontent. As content protection has become more important in net-worked home entertainment environments, providing DTCP-IP andother DRM technology can save R&D cost for device manufactureas well as guarantee copyright protection for content providers.

DLNA Device Classes

DLNA Application (GUI)

DMP/DMC API DMS API DMR API

DLNA ENGINE

DMS, M-DMS, DMP, M-DMP, DMR, DMC,M-DMC, M-DMD, M-DMU, +UP+, +DN+, +PU+

Player Engine*1

Trick Play, Slide Show, etc.

XML ParserUPnP

SSDP, GENA, SOAP

RTP/RTCP*1

(Client, Server)HTTP

(Client, Server)

Peer (Target Adaptation Module)

Window System

OS

Codecs

H/W Codecs S/W Codecs*1

File System TCP/IP, UDP

Drivers

H/W

*1) Supplied by OKI ACCESS Technologies Co., Ltd.

This section requires customization DLNA Core User Developing Modules Option Use to open source {Expat} API (Application Program Interface

DRM (Client Server)

DTCP-IP WM-DRM10*1

Module Diagram of NFLC

Flexible Module Structure of NFLC

Content Protection Functions of NFLC


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NFLC hasbeen approved by the DLNA as a DLNA Certified software solution.It is one of the first reference devices of DLNA Version 1.5 M-DMSand M-DMP compliant, and is used as a reference device to checkthe interoperability of devices intending to meet DLNA Version1.5Guidelines.

Forecasts predict that the DLNA market will see more and moreconnected devices, and that network connections will shift fromdata-centric to entertainment-centric. As a result, NFLC Version 2.0(available end of 2009) will add functionalities such as ScheduleRecording, Remote UI (user interface), EPG (Electronic ProgramGuide), Contents Sync (synchronization), Link Layer Security toenable the Connect and Enjoy concept promoted by DLNA.

The following is a description of newly-added DLNA functionalitiesand use case scenarios.

Scheduled Recording: A Mobile Digital Media Controller (M-DMC)controls scheduled recording of a media stream generated from asource device to a sink device over the network. A use case sce-nario is a mobile phone to browsing EPG (Electronic ProgramGuide) and command a STB to start a media stream to be recordedon a Hard Disk recorder via a LAN connection.

Remote UI: A Digital Media Controller (DMC) used to provide userinterfaces to one or more UPnP devices. Transport of UI content isin a format of extended subset of XHTM (CE-HTML) over HTTP. Usecase scenarios include mobile phones accessing an ElectronicProgram Guide (EPG), sharing of the same UI among devices with

different display capabilities, easy playback on devices, adding textto devices, or managing devices via proxy on the home network.

EPG: A Mobile Digital Media (M-DMC) to access Digital MediaSevers (DMSs) or Digital Media Players (DMPs) to obtain anElectronic Program Guide (EPG). An example is to use a mobilephone to access DTV or broadcast content by using an EPG orPSI/SI metadata embedded in the directory service.

Content Sync: A Digital Media Controller (DMC) synchronizing localchanging content or remote changing content with a Mobile DigitalMedia Controller (M-DMS) or a DMS. Content is stored on a mediaserver, and when the media server connects to the network,

new/changed content is sent to a mobile phone, media player orother UPnP devices.

Link Layer Security: The protection of a content stream (e.g. theindividual files exposed by a DMS) between two devices (e.g. DMSor DMR) on a DLNA network) from illegitimate observation or inter-ception. Usage scenarios focus on giving a guest (for example time-limited access or single use access) access rights to the homeown-ers network.

NFLC has beeported to ARM-based SoCs. These chips are used in set-topbox/Home Gateways, Blu-ray, DTVs, car-navigation systems as weas mobile phones, which are among the most widely deployedDLNA devices. At the same time, ARM chips have gained momen-tum in the DLNA market by including Web 2.0 & open software

platforms, UPnP connectivity, 2D/3D graphic processors and intellgent A/V processing functions. Moreover, as network functionshave become a crucial element in satisfying the needs of homeentertainment users, the partnership with ARM facilitates mergingthe separate ecosystems built around both solutions. ACCESS isconfident that working with ARM will mutually enhance the companies ability to provide competitive solutions to home networkcustomers.

NFLC will continue to evolvewith the development of the DLNA market as consumers anddevices move away from simply accessing the internet, towardsmore complex home networking functionalities. With its flexiblemodule structure, content protection functions, and continuousenhancement of home entertainment applications, NFLC will allowusers to seamlessly access and enjoy their digital content anytimeand anywhere.

A DLNA-certified M-DMP Reference Device

Newly-added Functions of NFLC: Use-case Examples

Working with ARM in the DLNA Market

Conclusion: Future of NFLC

The ARM architecture is very well suited for audio processing. Itincludes support for mixed precision arithmetic, SIMD instruction

all combined with very small power consumption an importantaspect in the light of global warming and green-IT.

ARM9E, ARM11 and Cortex-A8 based designs are already exten-sively deployed with Dolby technologies in portable and mobileapplications. Currently, Dolby Mobile - a suite of audio post pro-cessing technologies designed to enhance the audio experience oa mobile device - are available for those architectures directly fromDolby. Dolby Digital Plus is now fully optimized for the ARM11 anCortex-A8 processors, and HE-AAC decoders and encoders areavailable and deployed across all ARM architectures.

Some of the key building blocks for the MS10 decoder like theDD+ decoder are already available and optimized for the ARMarchitecture. Also, the Dolby Pulse decoder is a value added Dolbyimplementation based on the HE AAC decoder. The additionalcomponents including the Dolby Digital Encoder are available asfixed-point reference code from Dolby. This gives our mutualcustomers various options for bringing MS10 support to their STBand Digital TV designs. The availability of these components forthe ARM family platform will enable and accelerate support ofnew use cases like online media.

END

END

The Dolby MS10continued from page 39


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