On December 12, 2002, STMicroelectronics andTexas Instruments jointly announced an initiative forOpen Mobile Application Processor Interfaces (OMAPI) intended to be used with2.5 and3Gmobile phones, that were going to be produced during 2003.[1] (This was later merged into a larger initiative and renamed theMIPI alliance.) The Nomadik was STMicroelectronics' implementation of theMIPI interconnect standard.[2]Nomadik was first presented on October 7, 2003 in the CEATEC show in Tokyo,[3] and later that year the Nomadik won the Microprocessor Report Analysts' Choice Award for application processors.[4]
The family was aimed at2.5G/3Gmobile phones,personal digital assistants and other portable wireless products with multimedia capability. In addition it was suitable for automotive multimedia applications. The most known device using the Nomadik processor was theNokia N96 which used the STn8815 version of the chip. When the N96 debuted in 2008, the absence of aGPU was noticed.[5]
STn8800 Based onARM926EJ-S, announced in December 2003.[6][4] It had a 200MHz[7] CPU core, was built on 130nm silicon, and included onboard dedicated H.263 video decoding hardware acceleration.[8]
STn8810 Based onARM926EJ-S, announced in February 2005,[9] and running at 264MHz. According to PDAdb.net this processor was used inSamsung GT-C6625, GT-C6620, SGH-i200 (all running Windows Mobile 6.1) andLG KS10 (running Symbian).[10] It was manufactured on a130 nanometer silicon process, supportedVGA type graphics and 2-4 megapixel cameras, and could decode VGA H.263.[11]
STn8811 Based onARM926EJ-S, the STn8811 was originally announced alongside the STn8810 in February 2005, initially claimed running at a higher 350MHz clock speed,[12] and in stacked packaging options including 32MB of SDRAM and 64MB of Flash memory.[7] However, the product did not appear to be released to market until August 2007, when STMicro finally announced the release of the STn8811, but running at a higher 393MHz.[13][14]
STn8812 Also announced alongside the STn8810 in February 2005,[7] with identical specifications to the STn8811 but with a claimed 64 MB of SDRAM, however this processor did not appear to ever see a commercial release.
STn8815 Based onARM926EJ-S, announced in February 2006.[15] This processor built upon the STn8810 and STn8811, with the addition of 512Kib SRAM and 128kiBLevel 2 cache, while the processor speed was maintained at 334MHz. The processor functionality was also enhanced with the addition of more powerful hardware acceleration for image processing (supporting up-to 5MP cameras), as well as featuring enhanced video encoding (VGA, H.263, 30 fps) and decoding (VGA H.264) multimedia support.[16][17][18] This SoC was used inNokia 6788 andN96, as well as in Samsung SGH-L870.[19][20] The N96 received some criticism due to the STn8815's absence of 3D graphics hardware acceleration. It was manufactured in90 nanometer silicon technology.[21]
STn8820 Based onARM11, announced in February 2008[22][23] with 32KiB data and instruction caches and 256KiB level 2 cache, clocked at 528 MHz, and featuring the addition of a dedicated 3D OpenGL ES 2.0 accelerator, the ATIImageon Z460.[24][25][26] It was manufactured in65 nanometer silicon technology.[27] However, no devices are known to have ever used this SoC.
STn8830 was evidently planned for45 nanometer silicon technology but appears to have been cancelled.[28]
A derivative of the Nomadik was created specifically for navigation systems (GPS), named Cartesio STA2062. This was used in products fromGarmin such as the Nüvi 205 and Nüvi 500.[29] This derivative used ARM926EJ-S, was coupled with the STA5620 GPS RF downconverter and added a 32-channel hardware GPS correlator.[30]
The Nomadik family has been discontinued. In 2009, when development had already begun on a successor SoC calledSTn8500, it was superseded by theNovaThor family fromST-Ericsson and renamedU8500 as theST-NXP Wireless division was merged into the ST-Ericssonjoint venture.[31]
