Video

Plurality’s Hypercore Joins the Multi-Core Fray

There’s no shortage of startup companies with massively parallel processor architectures targeting high-performance signal processing applications, but Israel-based newcomer Plurality (www.plurality.com) isn’t discouraged. The company recently introduced a new multi-core architecture, Hypercore, that can support from 16 to 256 RISC processors on a single chip. Plurality is betting that its patented “synchronizer/scheduler” hardware—which the company claims enables “the programmability of a Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—As Signal Processing Workloads Evolve, So Must Processors

Historically, DSP processors have been the default choice for signal processing applications because they could efficiently process classical signal processing functions like FIR filters and FFTs. But those capabilities aren’t enough any more. Signal processing applications still include demanding real-time filtering and frequency transforms, but these algorithms are increasingly combined with processing that is fundamentally different. For example, algebraic signal processing computations Read more...

Case Study: Custom Benchmarks for Emerging Applications

Looking beyond today’s established high-volume applications, processor and SoC vendors often seek growth in promising emerging applications.  In entering any new market, vendors face two key challenges. First, they must ensure that their product is competitive;  and second, they must convince prospective customers of their product’s advantages. In emerging markets these challenges are more severe due to a lack of well understood application requirements and established benchmarks.  In Read more...

CEVA Unveils “Lite” Mobile Multimedia Platform

In March CEVA unveiled “Mobile-Media-Lite” (MMLite), a family of multimedia processing solutions comprising licensable silicon IP and software. The family is aimed at low-end multimedia-enabled devices such as mobile TV players, portable multimedia players, and multimedia phones. CEVA also announced the first family member, the MM2200, a single-processor multimedia engine. CEVA’s intent is to provide highly integrated, application-optimized solutions; the company states that the MM2200 is Read more...

Xilinx Spartan gets DSP

In recent years, FPGA vendors have been aggressively pursuing high-performance signal processing applications. This month Xilinx broadened its target DSP markets by announcing a new lower-cost DSP-oriented FPGA family, Spartan-3A DSP. Spartan-3A DSP FPGAs are intended to provide better DSP performance than other Spartan devices while being less expensive than Xilinx’s high-performance Virtex-4 and Virtex-5 families. The new chip family targets cost-sensitive applications with high computational Read more...

Stretch Announces Second-generation Software Configurable Processor

On March 5, Stretch, Inc. announced its second-generation software configurable processor family, the S6000, and two initial chips. With this offering—its first since the appointment last year of a new CEO—Stretch is mainly targeting video surveillance, video broadcast, and WiMAX basestation applications. The S6000, like the previous-generation S5000 family, is a RISC processor which incorporates a reconfigurable compute fabric within its datapath. The fabric (which Stretch calls ISEF) Read more...

BDTI Evaluates TI’s DaVinci Evaluation Module

Last month BDTI published a white paper detailing the results of its analysis of Texas Instruments’ Digital Video Evaluation Module (DVEVM).  The DVEVM is one component of TI's “DaVinci” digital video platform, which also includes video-oriented chips, off-the-shelf multimedia codec software, development tools, and APIs.   BDTI's evaluation focuses on whether the DVEVM is straightforward to use, how well it supports application prototyping, and whether it provides system designers with enough Read more...

BDTI Certifies ARC Video Subsystem H.264 Decode Performance

This month BDTI and silicon intellectual property licensor ARC International announced completion of BDTI Solution Certification™ of the H.264 video decode performance of the ARC Video Subsystem.  The ARC Video Subsystem, the first product to be certified under BDTI’s Solution Certification Service, is a programmable subsystem capable of supporting multiple video standards.  In certifying the solution, BDTI has independently verified its performance using proprietary BDTI bitstreams and Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Signal Processing Isn't a Commodity

At the Consumer Electronics Show last month I was struck (not for the first time) by the number of consumer electronics products that rely on digital signal processing—at this point, nearly all of them. In fact, so many of today's products incorporate digital signal processing-based functions that it's tempting to start viewing these functions as commodities. But in most cases, DSP functions aren't going to become commodities anytime soon. They may be ubiquitous, but they're not Read more...

PicoChip: Defying the Odds

Editor’s Note: The past year or so has brought a wave of parallel-processor start-ups pursuing digital signal processing applications.  But what about the previous wave?  In the late 1990s and into 2001, a large number of start-ups emerged with unique processor architectures targeting applications like wireless infrastructure.  The vast majority of these, such as Chameleon, Morphics, and Quicksilver, are long gone.  PicoChip, founded in 2000, is an interesting exception.  In this article, Read more...