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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Palm Pre Uses Omnivision Sensor (Rumor)

Yahoo: Even though no information has been officially released, Next Inning Technology Research thinks there is evidence suggesting that Omnivision got a strategic design win in the Palm Pre.

Pre has 3MP camera. If this rumor is correct, it means that Omnivision got quite a high profile design win for its high-megapixel sensors.

11 comments:

  1. Hmmmmm ... what do you make of this then?

    http://arstechnica.com/journals/hardware.ars/2009/01/09/ars-talks-to-palm-gets-under-the-hood-with-the-pre-ces-2009

    Matt Crowley didn't say anything about Omnivision. He said DxO, and DxO does have an EDoF solution for camera phones. http://www.letsgomobile.org/en/0890/cameramodule/

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  2. I don't see any reason why DxO EDoF would not work with Omnivision's sensors. But I agree that Crowley's remarks points more to STMicro, which is known to use DxO EDoF.

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  3. Then call a spade a spade. It is DxO's EDOF solution not OVT's. OVT's Wavefront Coding - GONE WITH THE WIND??

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  4. It looks like "image sensor" really like OVT. :p
    The truth is that DXO cannot work with OVT because of the CDM.

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  5. > The truth is that DXO cannot work with OVT because of the CDM.

    Why not? In theory, DxO EDoF algorithm can sit inside a separate ISP chip and get its input from Omnivision sensor. If this is the case, I wonder what is the company that licenses the DxO ISP pipeline?

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  6. Does anybody know if Next Inning's research is worth a darn? Most Wall Street analysts just repeat what's on the conference calls or what management tells them. It wouldn't surprise me if this guy just heard EDoF and remembered that Omnivision has an EDoF product. LOL.

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  7. EDoF is pretty much misunderstood by most "analysts". Palm use STM+DxO, not OVT.

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  8. So, STM has been quite successful in expanding its customer base. While not as high volume as Nokia, RIMM and Palm are high profile customers, at least in the US. Congratulations to ST!

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  9. To image sensor,

    CDM is a competitor to DXO. CDM is a subsidiary of OVT. That's the reason.

    You theory is true but OV applies the CDM's algorithms in its internal ISP, not DxO or Dblur.

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  10. Sorry, I still do not get your point. Omnivision has a lot of different products. There are 3MP sensors with no internal ISP and no CDM algorithms among them. In theory, one of these sensors could be interfaced with DxO-licensed ISP made by somebody else. For example, some application processor vendor might integrate DxO ISP onto its chip.

    Do you say that Omnivision refuses to sell its sensors to a customer, if it knows that this customer connects its sensors to DXO-powered ISP? Or you say that DXO refuses to license its ISP to customers who prefer to use Omnivision sensors for some reason?

    In any case, the previous poster claim that Pre uses STM sensor seems quite logical to me. Probably Next Inning Technology was wrong on this.

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  11. Manufacturers (such as Nokia and Palm) naturally attempt to use multiple sources of supply --> lower risk and more competitive prices. I won't be surprised if Palm uses both OVT and STM solutions.

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