June 8, 2009 -- The accelerating use of smartphones and the emergence of an exciting class of mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and Netbooks are creating an explosion of data transfer across wireless networks. Such full-featured devices give the consumer a multimedia viewing and listening experience, higher-resolution photography, and a richer set of applications like Web browsing and Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation. Cell-phone manufacturers and the chip providers that supply them need to decide which interface bus to use to support the required low-power, high-speed data transfer between the components that make up these new devices. The Video Electronics Standards Association’s (VESA’s) Mobile Display Digital Interface (MDDI) and the Mobile Industry Processor Interface Alliance’s (MIPI’s) display and camera interfaces provide overlapping standards to meet these requirements. Each standard is a reflection of its origin and the industry participants driving it.

This article will explore the different aspects of MDDI and MIPI to help designers determine whether they need to support both of them in their next chip or system design.

By Ashraf Takla and Timothy Saxe. (Takla is with Mixel, Inc. and Saxe is with QuickLogic Corp.)