Media processor........
Like other VLIW architectures, MAP-CA can be programmed entirely
with C-code compilers. The difference, the chip's backers claim, is
that it has much higher performance. In separate demonstrations at a
press conference here, Suzuki of Equator showed how the chip can
perform time-shifted encoding and decoding of MPEG-2 video, decode
two simultaneous MPEG-2 streams showing a fast-action hockey
game, and display video with a lower-resolution video inset in the
corner of a screen as well as a graphics menu overlay.
"If you compare this to [Philips] Trimedia, we're five to eight times
faster for MPEG-2," Suzuki said. "And as for wavelet, we're 30 times
faster."
The software module library covers 10 lower-level software
applications like MPEG-2 encode/decode, graphics processing, image
processing, and the All Format Decoder for digital TV. Also available
are a parallelizing C-compiler, linker, source level debugger and
simulators. Release 5 of the iMediaTools suite is backward-compatible
with software for earlier MAP processors.
The MAP-CA will be available from both Hitachi and Equator in sample
quantities this month for $300 per unit. Starting in July, the price will
come down to $40 each in 200,000-unit quantities. Equator will sell
$3,500 to $5,500 evaluation boards and $12,000 developer kits
starting this month.
More.........
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