1. Ministry of Commerce to lift MediaTek mergers and acquisitions Morningstar limit coincides with the high-end TV chip usher in the outbreak;
Set micro-mesh news, February 9 Ministry of Commerce website announcement shows that received MediaTek and Morningstar Semiconductor on the lifting of the notice of 2013 No. 61 (hereinafter referred to as "Notice") additional restrictive conditions of the application, after examination, the Ministry of Commerce decided The lifting of the restrictions placed on the announcement meant that the long-awaited acquisition, which lasted six years (since the acquisition of Morningstar in 2012), was finally completed.
MediaTek announced the acquisition of Morningstar in 2012, due to the two sides in the mainland TV chip market share of more than Qi Cheng, in the face of the Ministry of Commerce review, has been approved by the restriction.According to the requirements of the Ministry of Commerce, MediaTek and Morningstar, although the two companies can be one hundred percent In the merger, Morningstar's mobile chip division can also be transferred to MediaTek, but the TV chip divisions of both companies must maintain their independent operations within three years, giving television customers another look forward to the buffer period of chip suppliers.
Since then, the original Morningstar mobile phone department more than 800 employees into MediaTek, the original morning Star TV chips and set-top boxes, about 2000 employees stay in Taiwan Morningstar.
Under the three-year ban imposed by the Ministry of Commerce, MediaTek has chosen Morningstar to operate as a subsidiary and its own TV chip team has also been operating to develop its own product planning, customers and markets, and the two sides have maintained a competitive relationship so far.
The Ministry of Commerce's three-year ban on the merger of the two companies expired in August 2016. In September 2016, MediaTek and Morningstar Taiwan (hereinafter collectively referred to as the parties) filed an application to lift the restrictive conditions attached to the "Announcement." 2017 In November, the parties added new reasons and evidence.
MOFCOM said that after receiving the application, the two sides held talks with the parties on many occasions asking for supplementary evidences and soliciting opinions from relevant government departments, trade associations and downstream enterprises in written form, and verified the parties concerned Fulfillment of Obligations According to the requirements of Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as "Anti-monopoly Law"), "Provisions on Limited Concentration of Business Concentrators (Provisional)" and "Notice", the Ministry of Commerce The implementation of the "Notice", changes in the market competition, comprehensive assessment of the reasons for the lifting of the restrictive conditions and the impact of competition in the relevant market conditions.
Analysis of TV Master Chip Market Competition
MOFCOM assessed the changes in market competition and the impact of lifting the restrictive conditions on market competition according to law, and assessed that the competition conditions in the relevant markets have undergone major changes and that it is difficult to remove the restrictive conditions to exclude or restrict market competition.
(A) The market share of the parties dropped significantly.
According to the Notice, the market share of Cayman Morningstar in China's LCD TV main control chip market is 65%, and MediaTek's market share is 15% and the total market share is 80%. Since 2013, MediaTek and Morningstar Taiwan Market According to independent third party data, in the first half of 2017, in the LCD TV main chip market in China, the market share of Morningstar Taiwan was about 40% -45%, and the market share of MediaTek was about 5% -10%, with a total of less than 50 %, The market share dropped significantly.
(B) new competitors to enter the relevant market.
According to the "Notice", in the LCD TV main chip market in China, other market participants, except MediaTek and Morningstar, have a small market share and few new entrants. Since 2013, Ruidi Ke, Crystal Morning , Hass One after another into the relevant market, Luk Wing and Realtek market share is also rising, the parties formed an effective competitive restraint.According to independent third-party data, first half of 2017, Realtek, Ruidi Ke, Samsung, United Wing 4 competitor market share of about 5% -10%, more than MediaTek.In addition, Hass, Crystal Morning also set a certain competitive constraints MediaTek.
(C) downstream TV manufacturers dependence on the parties significantly decreased.
According to the "Notice", mainland China's six major TV makers are MediaTek and Cayman Morningstar as a major chip supplier, there is a certain dependence on MediaTek and Cayman Morningstar Since 2013, with the increase of new entrants in the market, Chinese TV manufacturers and other chip suppliers to increase cooperation in recent years have several domestic chip companies into their supplier system, the relocation of MediaTek and Morningstar significantly reduced.
(IV) The lifting of the restrictive conditions can reduce the parties' repeated investment and R & D costs.
The parties argued that due to restrictive conditions requiring MediaTek and Morningstar Taiwan to commit themselves to continuing to invest in R & D costs on TV chip products, respectively, and developing similar competitive products, resulting in duplication of investments in both technologies, the lifting of the restrictive conditions may reduce duplication of parties Investment, reduce research and development costs.
(V) The industry characteristics examined in the "Notice" further appear.
According to the Notice, the Ministry of Commerce conducted an in-depth examination of the status of the industries in which the relevant products are located, and considered the characteristics of the industry in which the LCD TV chips are located and the changes in supply and demand to a certain extent weaken the unfavorable impact of such concentration on competition. First, the LCD TV main chip market competition pattern is unstable. Second, the transaction provides growth opportunities for other market participants .In recent years, the "Notice" in the study of the industry characteristics and development trends further.First, the smart TV Second, after the transaction, TV makers in Mainland China began to seek other competitors as suppliers and several new competitors successfully entered the market. market.
Insiders pointed out that for the size of 'M', can enter the second phase of the merger, the main difference lies in the integration of both the TV chip team and resources efficiency; if the merger will reduce duplication of investment on both sides and reduce operating costs , And then pull up the benefits.
According to "2017 China TV Consumption and 2018 Trend Forecast Report" released by China Electronics Standardization Institute, top-end upgrades have become the mainstream color TV consumer trends. In 2017, the sales volume of color TV sets in China was about 48 million units, basically the same as in 2016, prominently The bright spot is that the market share of artificial intelligence TV has risen significantly, an increase of 80% over the previous year. Large size, ultra-thin, curved surface and 4K large-size TV have become the mainstream of color TV consumer market with obvious high-end TV symbol.
Due to more and more smart TV products that support 4K specifications and networking capabilities, global TV brand makers willing to adopt the strategy of small profits but quick turnover will be able to stimulate the terminal market. According to DIGITIMES forecast, the first quarter of this year, TV-related Chip orders growth momentum, as well as orders for the second quarter visibility will become more optimistic, has recently begun to reflect the TV, downstream supply chain performance of the orders.
Today, the merger of Morningstar merger to lift the restrictive terms, it can be said is the right time. (Proofreading / Fan Rong)
2. Group chairman: NAND Flash gap reproduce in the second half;
NAND Flash pricing, which has been strengthening for many quarters, is expected to fall back temporarily in the first quarter of 2018. However, due to the complicated process of 3D NAND Flash manufacturing process, the actual capacity of the fab will decline. As a result, the supply of NAND Flash will still be available in 2018 Difficult to see significant growth in the second half of NAND Flash quotes may be due to tight supply and demand again.
On the other hand, although the penetration rate of SSDs in terminal applications such as desktop computers and notebook computers continues to increase, most of the controllers used in SSDs are provided by NAND Flash suppliers. Therefore, The relatively limited markets available to independent controller vendors are also likely to make it possible for SSD controller chip companies to consolidate and reshuffle in the coming years.
NAND Flash quote jump after the first squat
PAN Jian-cheng, chairman of the group, said NAND Flash quotes that have been rising for many quarters are expected to plummet by as much as 30% in the first quarter of 2018. However, due to the complexity of 3D NAND Flash processes, compared to 2D NAND Flash, After the 2D NAND Flash fab with a capacity of 100,000 units per month is in the 3D process, the actual output may be only about 60,000, so the NAND Flash supply will remain tight without a lot of new wafer capacity going out. With the timing into the industry peak, NAND Flash may still be in short supply in the second half.
PAN Jian-cheng, chairman of the group, said the first quarter of 2018 NAND Flash prices fall, the development of the industry may not necessarily be a bad thing.
Pan Jiancheng believes that NAND Flash prices temporarily fall, the group may not be entirely negative news.As the price continued to rise, many customers over the past few quarters tend to be conservative purchasing behavior, but the recent NAND Flash offer loose, the customer orders, On the other hand, the price is temporarily down, it is a good time to replenish inventory, after all, NAND Flash particles in the supply did not significantly improve the case, the supply and demand gap or May appear.
However, if you look at the storage capacity, the bit growth rate of NAND Flash in 2018 is still quite worth the wait, because the density of single NAND Flash particles has obviously grown since the switch to 3D structure, and 3D NAND Flash will enter 96 in 2018 Layer stack era, coupled with TLC technology, a single particle capacity from 256Gb (32GB) take off.
Pan Jiancheng pointed out that due to the substantial increase in the density of memory particles, storage capacity of many application products will see significant growth by 2018. For example, the mainstream specifications of smart phone storage capacity should be increased to 128GB and 64GB become the entry-level terminal. Application of memory capacity of the product continues to grow trend, has not seen the end.
SSD controller will enter the industry consolidation
In addition to the price trend of NAND Flash, Pan Jiancheng also talked about the future direction of the SSD controller industry.He said that although the application of SSD is becoming more and more popular, the pressure to survive is still great for the SSD controller industry.As Samsung Samsung and SK Hynix have their own SSD controller solutions. Micron has both homemade and outsourced products, and Toshiba is completely outsourced. As a result, although the size of the SSD market has grown significantly in recent years, But for the independent controller industry, the market can be assigned to the bread is actually limited.
Overall, the total market share of Samsung, SK hynix and Micron's OEMs is about 80%, while the market share of independent controllers is about 20%, so while SSD shipments continue to rise, independence Controllers who can be assigned to the pie is actually limited.
Under this circumstance, Pan Jiancheng expects a wave of shuffling in the SSD controller industry in the next few years and some suppliers will withdraw from the market.At present, the independent SSD controller market is dominated by Marvell, Grouplink, Huirong and the mainland Hundreds of small-scale IC design companies are divided, but objectively analyzing this market can not accommodate so many suppliers. Therefore, Pan Jiancheng believes that the most important strategic goal of the group in the coming years is to seek to be the only survivor on the market In order to achieve this goal, the group's portfolio in recent years has become more diversified.In addition to PC, server SSD, smart phone eMMC, SD memory card and other core products, including industrial control, automotive, Vertical applications such as embedded systems, are very much attached to the group of new markets, but after years of hard work, has now begun to enter the harvest period.
As for the SSD controller industry in China, Pan Jiancheng believes that the group now has two to three years of technological leadership, which is a competitive chip that the group can make good use of. Because of the chips in hand, the group co-operates in China There are many tactical options on the market that can be operated with the local SSD controller industry in China and may not necessarily be competitive.
Upstream and downstream industry profits and integrity of the tide neutral unbeaten
Apart from the memory supply and demand issue, there is actually a black swan that will have a significant impact on the memory industry in 2018, namely the evolution of the situation in the Korean Peninsula. Pan Jiancheng said in the unlikely event of a major change in the situation in the Korean Peninsula, memory quotes will certainly appear However, for the technology industry, how the international situation is changing is not something industry can control. It can only try to make preparations in response.
Memory is essentially an industry with obvious economic cycles. Therefore, long-term operation in this industry usually means forming goodwill relationships and establishing deep partnerships with upstream suppliers and downstream customers. In recent years, Out of stock when there is news, in this case, the memory particles suppliers who Peihuo, in addition to watching the price, the past relationship management is also very important in the memory market is not good, the gang together to help the upstream Memory suppliers Tuen a lot of goods, itself also bear no small pressure; but in the out-of-memory, suppliers will be rewarded, support each other with the downstream customer relationship as well.
Industry chain upstream and downstream to help each other, to share the risk is in the memory of this cycle of fierce industrial management, a very important way of mind. Group can come to today's scale, in addition to their solid technical foundation, leading product specifications, with Toshiba (Toshiba) and Kingston, which are also lacking by many independent controller suppliers, and Future Alliance will continue to work closely with these key partners in order to remain invincible in the coming tidal wave of industry consolidation New Electronics
3.Flash memory growth limitless 3D NAND / SSD application hot;
With the development of the Internet of Things, the demand for SSDs in consumer electronics, business, industrial and automotive markets has risen sharply, providing excellent growth opportunities for supply chain operators such as NAND Flash memory, control chips and SSD modules. This event invites SSDs Important manufacturers in the field, looking forward to the future evolution of the technical specifications and market trends.
The solid state storage (SSD) footprint based on NAND Flash is expanding across the board, driven by trends in applications such as 4K video, VR and augmented reality (AR), and growing IoT smart sensing, Demand for SSDs in the consumer electronics, business, industrial and automotive markets soared, providing great growth opportunities for supply chain players such as NAND Flash memory, control chips and SSD modules, and the relevant vendors are fully motivated to develop higher specifications A new generation of solutions.
Overall, the biggest change in SSD in 2017 is the upgrade of technical specifications such as the rapid rise of multi-channel PCIe SSDs, as well as breakthroughs in read and write performance, scalability and power saving. Looking ahead to 2018, as 3D NAND memory yield With the improvement of production capacity, advanced technologies of controllers and module makers, the market efficiency of SSD products will be re-written and the market penetration rate will also be expanded. This event invites key players in the field of SSDs to look forward to the evolution of future technical specifications and market trends .
The Internet of Things has drawn the attention of the industry from its presentation by Zhang Zhongmou, chairman of TSMC in 2014. But the term IoT dates back to 1999 as Chen Zhiqing, deputy general manager of Daixing Electronics (Figure 1), said that as of 2017, the IoT device reached 10 billion but is expected to grow fivefold to 50 billion by 2020. There are devices that produce data continually and large amounts of data drive storage needs as well. In 2017, human-generated digital data is about 25 bytes (Zettabytes, ZB) "Jie" represents the 21st power of 10, 2025 will produce 163ZB of data.
IoT Drives Demand for Solid State Storage Growth
In the IoT application, compared with the traditional magnetic storage, the SSD has the characteristics of high performance, reliability, low power consumption and flexible form factor Chen Zhiqing shows that in the performance part, the transmission interface of SSD has adopted PATA in the 1990s and the transmission speed is about 133MB / s. After 2006, it has evolved into SATA / SAS interface and the transmission rate has been improved to 6 ~ 12Gbps. After 2013, PCIe interface plus NVMe protocol, Gen3 version of the four-channel architecture can provide 32Gbps speed, transmission performance is also more than double the SATA / SAS.
In the reliability section, Flash has set up many data protection mechanisms such as SPOR, Error Checking and Correcting (ECC), etc. to maintain data integrity. In general, SSD has an annual failure rate (AFR) of less than 1%, while the hard disk is about 3%. Operating reliability part, SSD because mechanical structure less, in the earthquake, noise and even the operating temperature range has a good performance.In addition, SSD also through the monitoring software Monitor the health of storage units and reduce unplanned downtime.
Controller for Flash performance check
In recent years, the performance of Flash Flash has been continuously improved, including comprehensive progress in manufacturing process, storage unit, stack level, three-dimensional structure and transmission interface, but also due to the rapid development, in fact, Flash particles will appear more and more flaws , We must rely on more management mechanisms to help maintain its effectiveness. Xu Jianghan, senior manager of R & D group at Link Electronics (Figure 2), said Flash is also the main reason why Flash needs to carry a controller.
Flash controller chip responsible for data protection, Xu Jianghan explained that ECC technology in response to the upgrade of the Flash capacity, and to the 3D semiconductor structure, but also from the BCH (Bose Chaudhuri Hochquenghem) to the development of low density parity check code (Low Density Parity Check, LDPC). Compared with the BCH algorithm, LDPC has a higher performance, as shown in Figure 3. The new generation of LDPC error correction technology will bring higher error checking ability to 3D TLC NAND, Further improve data stability and P / E Cycle, and with RAID ECC to enhance the error rate.
The future development of SSD towards M-shaped development at both ends, Xu Jianghan further explained that many of the high-end SSD is used in the game, the process uses a very advanced 1x nm, the controller built-in multi-core processors and Introducing OPAL 2.0 confidential technology and incorporating supercapacitors to reduce the data loss rate by using more reliable MLC memory particles Lower cost SSDs are cost-intensive, may not carry DRAM, and share the system's memory such as Host Memory Buffer (HMB) ), But also does not carry AES encryption, only two channels, using data compression technology to save space, support for lower-level memory, and use more Cell particles.
Industrial application of highly customized development
Industrial applications in the Internet of Things is also a high potential and market applications, compared with the general consumer applications, Lin Chuan-sheng, general manager of Yingbote Technology pointed out that industrial applications SSD customers are enterprises and have highly customized needs, Long product life cycle requirements are about five to twenty years and high quality requirements. Long-term technical service support is required. The design lead-in period is relatively long, the application area is very specific, the operating environment is quite diversified, Harsh environment, high temperature, low temperature, high vibration and high dust environment operation.
Practical applications include smart meters, measuring instruments, ticket vending machines, factory automation, industrial computers / laptops, POS systems, health care devices, security products, self-driving and servers, etc. Car Import Intelligence and Development The self-contained system is a very popular area in recent years. Its operating environment is also similar to that of industrial applications, including automotive video and audio systems, navigation systems, telematics systems, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), drive recorders, digital instruments and autonomous vehicles System, etc., have great potential.
Overall, the industrial and automotive applications will continue to develop in the future, but also drive the SSD in these areas of application and growth.Lin Chuansheng that, SSD has a variety of different specifications, interfaces, capacity, process, operation requirements, industrial and automotive applications Carefully defined at each level, selected specifications according to application requirements, and carefully tuned, so that the performance and stability of the entire system have reached the standard, should pay attention to the details than the trivial and stringent consumer applications.
Niche-based applications in meeting the special needs of the key
Industrial applications In addition to market demand, the technical, stability requirements are higher, Ye Ding International Industrial Flash Business Unit Deputy Chief Lin Chen Huan (Figure 4) said that compared to consumer applications, industrial applications of Flash into the new product technology Will be slower, industrial memory particles are expected to be used in 2018 3D TLC products, as for the four-cell QLC may be imported later than consumer applications in 2020, about one to two years.
Compared with the standard SATA SSD mounting type, M.2 module can be designed as a smaller module and is very convenient for the application of Internet of Things PCIe interface, can provide high bandwidth transmission, also supports multiple interfaces and applications, the design is very flexible and convenient, I believe it is one of the trends of future industrial applications.
For various application needs, Lin Huanhuan, for example, needs a long time operation of the server application. Since there is a large amount of data requirements, solutions of small size and high capacity are usually required. Meanwhile, the technology of Excellent Data Retention The long product life expectancy is the focus of this type of application.Of the more specific aerospace and military applications, the first priority is Security, including Secure Erase of data, that is, the data is completely eliminated, the ultimate The way is completely destroyed with high voltage data can not be completely restored.In addition, such as the protective coating (Conformal Coating) and 100% data integrity (Data Integrity), etc., are its special needs.New Electronics
4. Wang Wang macro orders are not short in the first quarter;
Macronix benefited from the NOR Flash price soared last year EPS3.12 yuan, better than the market expected performance.Although the first quarter is the off-season, but Mong macro first quarter orders are not bearish, 12-inch factory full of cast, the hands of In response to demand, January's revenue dropped only 1.1% from a month earlier to 3.091 billion yuan, up 41.5% over the same period of last year.
Though mainland peers expand NOR Flash production capacity, Macronix considers that it will only affect the low-capacity market and will not affect Macronix's competitiveness in the medium and high-end markets. The price of medium- and high-end NOR Flash is still bullish this year and its operational outlook for the year is optimistic. Mong Kok shares affected by the global stock market crash last Friday fell to 38.00 yuan, corporate downside is expected to have limited, the line will have strong support. (Source: Business Times ─ Tu Zhihao)
5.HDMI 2.1 fiery baked high-definition video needs surging
HDMI has also taken the trend to release the latest standards, announced the formal arrival of 4K, 8K era, or even 10K imaging applications surging.This article will be announced at the end of 2017 HDMI2.1 specification, as well as measurement Laboratory observation experience, discusses the future of the latest HDMI development and future image trends.
As high definition video is becoming the mainstream standard for television and 4K monitors are released one after the other, the transmission specifications of the past data may not meet the future requirements. HDMI Forum (HDMI forum INC.) In early 2017, announced a new video standard, And in time for the end of 2017, formally released HDMI 2.1 specification (Specification), this new specification in addition to substantial increase in image transfer speed, and the future of 10K / 5K image needs are also taken into account, this represents the formal consumer audio-visual products Into the 10K / 5K new era.
High-definition video and audio demand by HDMI 2.1 is 10K specifications
HDMI transmission line is widely used in the consumer audio and video products, including television, computers, players, video streaming and other devices on the video transmission, an HDMI transmission line also carries the video and audio signals, and to ensure that audio and video transmission process does not signal Will decay.
So what is the concept of 10K / 5K? Regardless of whether the technology can be achieved, the majority of consumers' questions will be 10K / 5K display technology is necessary, after all, audio and video consumer market by FHD (1,920 × 1,080 ) It took nearly three years for the resolution of UHD (4K2K, 3,840 × 2,160) to reach the resolution of 4K (3,840 × 2,160) devices.
In fact, the announcement of 4K / 2K technology in 2014 did not bring about a large number of switchboard tides. By the end of 2017, most television and movie formats remained at FHD resolution, let alone 8K (7,680 × 4,320) Resolution has not yet appeared.
VESA, another organization for HDMI, has already announced the technical specifications of DP1.3 (predecessor to DP1.4) 8K / 4K in 2014. However, the market visibility of the 8K / 4K monitor so far is still very high Low, this means that consumers do not have a clear feeling of resolution.
The reason why there is no obvious feeling, mainly due to the human eye can not feel so much, but the release of HDMI 2.1 also joined the dynamic HDR (Dynamic HDR) specifications.Future in the image depth of field, detail, brightness, and Contrast, etc. can be improved to a wider color gamut; and visual effects added depth, due to the addition of dynamic HDR, which can achieve better three-dimensional results.
For this reason HDMI specifications of this announcement not only to enhance the resolution, but also into the future of other audio-visual product specifications.Therefore, the first part of this article will be announced at the end of 2017 HDMI2.1 specification, In the second part, I will make some comments on the trend observed by Itech's signal lab.
Carrying higher resolution HDMI2.1 transmission specifications climbed to 48Gbps
According to the HDMI release standard, HDMI 2.1 will support "Dynamic HDR", with frame-by-frame enhancement of the image to provide a better display than static HDR. Physically, HDMI 2.1's Cavle looks just like the current HDMI 2.0 , But 2.1 can carry a higher resolution and higher update rate, portable image resolution increased to 10K, the update rate up to 120fps.
Transmission bandwidth from the current HDMI 2.0 maximum data transfer speed of 18Gbps, while the HDMI 2.1 specifications at one breath while the transfer rate of bandwidth to 48Gbps (Figure 1). In terms of sound quality will be further improved, enhanced audio The details and depth of the following will be for the specifications in the FRL (Fix Rate Link) Mode import, DSC compression, eARC audio technology import and Dynamic HDR these four for further instructions.
Figure 1 HDMI 2.1 version of the outgoing bandwidth pulled up to 48Gbps.
Import FRL mode to improve HDMI 1.4 / 2.0 TMDS mode shortcomings
In the days of HDMI 1.4 and 2.0, HDMI's physical layer transport format has followed the TMDS (Transition-minimized differential signaling) mode defined by Silicon Image (Figure 2).
Figure 2 HDMI1.4 and HDMI2.0 version-TMDS graphics
In this mode the signal is composed of Data 0, Data 1, Data 2 and Data 2, and a combination of Clock Lanes. This mode is naturally caused by early YUV or RGB video signals, and Plus the combination of Sampling Clock.
This combination of the current cable transmission technology, of course, is a waste of resources under a limited number of transmission line groups, because Clock does not load any data (Data).
In HDMI2.1, the FRL mode defines the four differential transmission lines as data lines, Lane 0, Lane 1, Lane 2, and Lane 3, respectively, and Clock must be separated from the Data.
This mode is actually not a new technology. As early as in the era of Displayport 1.0, a similar application called CDR (Clock Data Recovery) mode, Clock is separated from the Data.
This arrangement can increase the Total Throughput by a factor of four to improve the transmission efficiency. Although the FRL mode literally refers to the Fix rate (Table 1), the application data rate is not really only one type of frequency, depending on the resolution Divided into 3GHz, 6GHz, 8GHz, 10GHz and 12GHz; and different frequencies can be arranged separately for 3 Lane or 4 Lane.
FRL model coding changed to 16b18b mode
TMDS encoding (Coding) way is to convert a 8-bit byte to 10-bit encoding, and then carried in the Serial way Data bus on the transmission.To transfer 10bit in this mode, 2 bit is a waste, so Coding Efficiency is only 80%.
FRL mode to 16b18b code (Figure 3), which still only two bits is wasted, naturally in the Coding efficiency increased to 16/18 = 88.88%. The same is to increase Throughput a technique.
Figure 3 16b18b graphics
16b18b practice is to put two 8bit byte first series together, then one of the nine bit as a unit look-up table, get 10 bit code, and then the remaining 7bit query another table, get 8 bit Coding, and finally 10bit with 8 bit serial together get 18 encoding, the same can achieve Coding energy dispersion effect.
Get higher resolution HDMI 2.1 Import DSC mode
DSC compression used by HDMI is not developed by HDMI itself, but by the VESA-owned DSC V1.2 license. The full name of the DSC is Display stream compression, which VESA claims is a loss of visual loss Way.Compared with the features before HDMI 2.0, HDMI has been emphasizing the transmission of uncompressed signal.Disadvantage of the introduction of DSC can be seen HDMI is committed to improving the resolution at the same time, had to compromise to the actual physical characteristics.
If you calculate with HDMI 2.0 at 4K / 2K Data rate, if you add only one lane and add the resolution to 8K / 4K at the same time, each channel will be up to 18GHz in 444 mode; if it is 10K / 5K, 28.125GHz, which in the transmission of physical properties is almost impossible, not to mention the application in consumer products.
Therefore, the DSC features are only compressed in the H direction and not in the V direction.The Timing table of HDMI 2.1 announcement, for example, a 10K / 5K 422 Timing with an original resolution of 10,240 × 4,320, DSC compression Will be 3,120 × 4,320, compression is about the original 1/3.
Improve ARC to eARC to improve sound quality
HDMI 2.1 supports the new eARC technology (Figure 5) and returns Object-based audio such as Dolby Atmos over the existing ARC (Audio Return Channel). The use of ARC in TV-based audio systems has become standard, with ARC Since the single-ended application design is relatively simple, most systems only support single-ended design, however, the practical application of single-ended transmission and anti-noise ability is inherently weak, so ARC mostly only supports 48K Sampling rate format.
Figure 5 eARC graphics
HDMI 2.1 improved ARC ARCARC (enhance Audio Return Channel), supports both Differential mode and Common mode of transmission.
Differential mode can transmit up to 36.864MHz
/ 192K 24bit PCM audio or 24,576MHz / 768frame rate nonlinear-PCM audio; and Common mode can transmit 1M Control signal. Differential mode and Common mode signals are transmitted at the same time.
Combined with dynamic HDR rendering the picture more "look" head
HDMI 2.1 supports the latest Dynamic HDR (Dynamic HDR) technology. Compared to the current static HDR of HDMI 2.0, Dynamic HDR ensures that every aspect of the image, or even every frame, is resized so that each frame (Frame) screen can show the depth of field, detail, brightness, contrast, the ideal value and a broader color gamut.
In the specification of HDMI 2.0a, HDR applications have been brought into use, in which meta data metadata is referred to as "static metadata" (Metadata), that is, there is only one type of HDR message carried in a video. From There will be no change from the beginning to the end of the play.
HDMI 2.1 is to import the dynamic Metadata Metadata can change for each frame, in theory, this model can be more accurately restore the HDR video, but in the actual calibration is still a certain degree of difficulty .
10K / 5K also need to promote content
The HDMI 2.1 Test Specification (CTS) is not expected to be phased in until the end of May 2018, but based on the author's observations of the iST Technology Verification Test Lab, most vendors still test with HDMI 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 , For HDMI 2.1 in 10K / 5K this side is still on the sidelines. There are two main reasons, one from 4K / 2K has not yet truly universal, let alone 10K / 5K is still in the discussion stage; two from the content (Content) Including movie specifications and other content surface, not yet 10K / 5K come out, whether the hardware side so early into research and development, keep watching.
However, at present, the playing of video images has gradually shifted to the network streaming end, including Amazon.com, Netflix, etc., all carrying video and audio on their own websites. The contents of the 10K / 5K content will be imported in the future, and may also be carried from the network device side.
(The author works at IST) New Electronics
6. After stabilizing Q1 sales continued high
Last year, GWM reported revenue of NT $ 17.086 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of 9.34 yuan, hitting record highs. With the seasonal transition from January to February in the traditional off-season season, Q1 revenue declined by 20% Gross profit margin was lower than the fourth quarter of last year, the company forecast the first quarter of this year will be the lowest point, after which operations continued to rise.
Two major industries, including optoelectronic components (3D sensing, optical communications) and 5G, will be the two major growth engines in the coming years with much better endurance. Last Friday (September 9) Reimbursement and the three largest legal affiliates 1,884, for the main buying power support, 220 for the bottom area, the stock price has the opportunity to complete the end of the first quarter.