NEC CE143 Chip

NEC has introduced its “camera engine” chips to the world. These chips will allow manufacturers to design camera phone modules that support 12 megapixel still photos and full 1080p HD video. The chip, CE143, also has built-in support for image-stabilization and has some hi-tech circuitry that NEC claims can perform face recognition 25 times faster than the usual software-based methods. Chip samples are expected to be available in March 2009, and will be into full production of 1 million chips a month from April onwards. NEC will also be showing off this chip at MWC 2009.