ATI announces new Imageon chips for multimedia phones

ATI introduced the new media processors Imageon 2282 and Imageon 2182 that, according to the company, can turn a mobile phone into a high-resolution megapixel digital camera, a high-fidelity digital audio player and a digital camcorder with streaming video and video conferencing capabilities.

A programmable audio engine in the new processors enable features such as CD-quality, 3D ring-tones along with high-quality stereo recording and playback in industry standard formats, including AMR, AAC, MP3, Real Audio, WMA and MIDI, ATI said. The video engine enables a mobile digital video recorder/player and supports digital still camera with up to 3 megapixel resolution. The higher-end 2282 model provides video streaming and video conferencing functionality with picture-in-picture support.

The two chips are the first result of ATI's acquisition of announcement of Cute Technologies. The company said that Cute expanded the firm's multimedia expertise to audio processing and helped to strengthen its presence in the mobile phone market. (THG)