Sunplus Technology has started shipping a new back-end image processor supporting the JPEG and MPEG-4 formats since October, with current shipments estimated at 100,000-200,000 units per month, according to the company. According to DigiTimes, the new SPCA536 chip has been adopted by Taiwan-based camera manufacturers Aiptek International and Mustek Systems for their 4-megapixel, CCD digital video (DV) camcorders.

Sunplus declined to reveal the chip prices, but said its prices should be about 20-30% cheaper than quotes offered by some of its international competitors. According to sources, back-end image processors are in general priced at US$17-20.