To All: Here's a July 21 EETime's "article" on Parthus:
eetimes.com
LONDON — Parthus Technologies plc, a developer of semiconductor
intellectual property, is licensing a collection of Internet-audio
hardware and software modules that can be implemented as a
single-chip MP3 player at a silicon cost of less than $5, the company
said.
The company's MediaStream platform supports a range of audio
equipment types and functions, from MP3 portable players and cell
phones to speech recognition for mobile devices and devices with
Bluetooth connectivity.
As a measure of the value Parthus puts on its platform, the company
said MediaStream's first publicly known licensee, Creative Technology
Ltd. (Singapore), has signed a multimillion-dollar deal covering the
next few years.
While ARM Ltd. (Cambridge, England) holds a minority interest in
Parthus, MediaStream is microprocessor-independent. It's based on
the DSP2410, a 24-bit Harvard architecture DSP developed by Parthus
four years ago and used subsequently in a lot of its audio-design
work. In addition, Parthus offers analog components, pieces of audio
software and serial and parallel audio, and regular data interfaces.
They include interfaces to flash memory and flash memory card
connectors.
Creative, best known for its Soundblaster range of sound cards for
PCs, plans to use MediaStream as the base technology for its future
MP3 players.
"MediaStream's ultra-low power requirements, programmability and
surroundsound effects are the key advantages of this platform," said
Sean Mitchell, director of multimedia at Parthus (Dublin, Ireland). "Our
technology and unique platform approach is enabling Creative to
rapidly build lighter, smaller and more powerful next-generation MP3
players."
"Connectivity, programmability, mobility and time-to-market are the
key advantages to licensing mobile-Internet platforms from Parthus,"
said Hock Leow, Creative's chief technology officer. "Moreover,
licensing from Parthus enables us to cost-effectively source our chips
from a foundry of choice."
Format choices
Mitchell said the digital hardware component of MediaStream has been
implemented in silicon using 0.18-micron CMOS, but it's available for
license as an HDL file at the register-transfer level, in netlist format at
the gate level or as a GDS-II tape at the layout level.
Mitchell said a C compiler and third-party development tools are
available to support the DSP, but their names will be disclosed only to
customers or potential customers prepared to sign a nondisclosure
agreement.
The quantified power consumption of any configuration of the
MediaStream was also confidential, Mitchell said, adding that
MediaStream was, "as good or better than any other audio IP
platform. The Cirrus Logic MP3 player; we can beat them."
The speech recognition claimed for MediaStream results from
third-party software running on the DSP2410. Mitchell would not
identify the company whose software has been licensed or say if
Parthus could sublicense it.
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Bottom line? I'm always on the look-out for new, and interesting, speculations. This one certainly looks to fit the bill. Now for a little more due dilly.
Regards!
John~ |
