By the end of the year, Intel will have software decoders running at 24 fps, on a 266Mhz machine..............................
techweb.com
June 23, 1997, Issue: 1063
Section: News
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DVD priority: sound -- Graphics vendors scramble to provide quality audio
By Mark Hachman
Silicon Valley- As DVD begins to take center stage, multimedia vendors are realizing that they must develop audio expertise or risk being left out of an emerging market.
Gateway 2000 Inc.'s introduction last week of the DVD-enabled Destination PC indicates that PC vendors are planning for multimedia to have a place in the living room. But a vast number of players are vying for the privilege of decoding the video and audio coded on the DVD, with devices ranging from the host processor to graphics chips to integrated MPEG-2/AC-3 decoders from SGS-Thomson Microelectronics N.V. and others.
At the high end, the Mpact media processor from Chromatic Research, Sunnyvale, Calif., will serve as a decoder in the Destination, the company said last week. In addition, ATI Technologies Inc. officials hinted that the company plans to enter the audio market.
Even established audio vendors such as ESS Technology Inc., Fremont, Calif., plan to work "backwards," adding MPEG decoding functions to a future generation of its Agogo modem/sound processors, according to sources.
And that is forcing graphics vendors to offer high-quality audio as soon as possible - or risk losing potential customers.
ATI executives declined to comment on whether the company would enter the audio market. But ATI's 3D Rage II+DVD graphics accelerator decodes video with help from the host CPU. ATI, which also builds add-on cards based on its chips, uses a third-party audio decoder.
"ATI's main competition in the graphics industry has been S3, which has announced the SonicVibes chip," said Niles Burbank, manager of desktop graphics at ATI, Toronto. "To maintain our technological leadership in the graphics space, we must prepare for any integration of technology that may occur." Specifically, that means ensuring that both the video and audio are properly synchronized, he said.
Analysts confirmed that ATI will enter the audio market. "Audio's really been under the cross hairs for a while," said Dean McCarron, principal at Mercury Research, Scottsdale, Ariz. "Modem vendors, graphics and video vendors, even speaker manufacturers are looking to add audio technology as a means of adding value and differentiating themselves from their competition."
Video/graphics and sound-accelerator makers ATI, S3 Inc., and Cirrus Logic Inc. licensed the A3D positional sound algorithm from Aureal Semiconductor Inc., Fremont, last week. The A3D technology fools the ear into believing sound output from a pair of speakers actually emanates from a variety of virtual sources surrounding the listener.
ATI's chief competition has been S3, which tops the market for volume sales of graphics accelerators. S3's SonicVibes audio chip and its recent license of video technology from Faroudja Laboratories are two footholds for the climb into the living-room PC, analysts said.
"I think ATI is running scared," said Mark Gaare, director of consumer research at Semico Research Corp., Phoenix. "The Chromatic design win is extremely significant in such a mainstream product. And below that you've got 22 vendors of integrated MPEG-2/AC-3 decoders, and you know some of that will shake out."
For S3, the decision to add audio was strategically important from both purchasing and engineering perspectives.
"Approaching 50% market share in the graphics market, we had to consider other options [for growth]," said Mike Nell, vice president and general manager of audio/communications at S3, Santa Clara, Calif. "But if we added audio we could leverage our supplier relationships."
The technology translated well, Nell said. "Because of our digital graphics expertise, the digital portion of the audio accelerator was virtually done." S3 claims an 83-dB signal-to-noise ratio for its SonicVibes chip, nearing the 90 dB that Intel requires in its Audio Controller '98 road map.
Finally, Chromatic views its first design win as a strategic one. "It takes months for a vendor like Gateway to qualify a part," said John Monti, director of product marketing. "We view this design win as a means of helping ourselves get onto the motherboard when we produce the Mpact 2 [with a floating-point unit for 3-D graphics]," he said.
In the background, Intel Corp., Santa Clara, has worked "extensively" with software MPEG-2/AC-3 decoding vendors such as Compcore and Mediamatics to make the debate a moot point, according to Chris Lane, DVD program manager at Intel. The company's engineers have helped software vendors optimize their code for the Pentium II, even sending engineers on-site for weeks, he said.
"By year's end, a 266-MHz Pentium II will generate 24 frames per second, decoding MPEG-2 and AC-3 data with 10% CPU overhead," Lane said.
Copyright r 1997 CMP Media Inc. |
