More Chromatic................................
techweb.com
September 22, 1997, Issue: 972
Section: News
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Mpact 2 chips highlight departure from plans for all-in-one multimedia accelerator -- Chromatic narrows focus to stress graphics, DVD
By Anthony Cataldo
Sunnyvale, Calif. - With the introduction of its second-generation coprocessor, the Mpact 2, Chromatic Research Inc. continues to retreat from initial efforts to offer an all-in-one multimedia accelerator, focusing instead on providing 2-D and 3-D graphics along with DVD video. Meanwhile, one of Chromatic's manufacturing partners, Toshiba Corp., has revealed plans to use the Mpact 2 core in an embedded DRAM, in a plan to enter the crowded space for graphics chips for notebook computers.
Chromatic plans to release only 2-D/3-D and DVD portions of its Mediaware firmware next month, when the first samples of the Mpact 2 are expected to arrive from Toshiba. That strategy is in marked contrast to the company's initial attempt to bundle everything from graphics to video and telephony in one firmware release.
"Our first attempt was going after the all-in-one [multimedia] approach," said David Wilt, corporate marketing manager for Chromatic. "But we've decided to take a more modular approach to pinpoint particular market segments." They include desktop and low-cost PCs, PC/TV hybrids and add-in cards that could sell in high volumes for less than $100.
Though Chromatic would not say when it will release the next pieces of firmware, the company's manufacturing partners said they expect the modules to arrive in early 1998. They will support wavetable audio, home-movie editing, fax/modem, full telephony and photo capture, said Mark Nogaki, director of media-processing marketing for Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. (San Jose, Calif.)
For its part, Toshiba will spin a notebook graphics chip by coupling the Mpact 2 core with embedded DRAM when it moves to its 0.25-micron ASIC process in the middle of next year. The plan is to add 4 Mbytes of synchronous DRAM to the core linked by a 128-bit internal bus, Nogaki said.
Such a device would suit the Chromatic chip for both desktops and portable PCs because of its inherently low power dissipation and small die size. Nogaki said he expects the first devices with embedded DRAM will be available by mid-1998.
"With embedded DRAM you can get 128-bit I/O in addition to low power dissipation," he said. "In addition, these derivatives will have support for flat-panel displays."
Both the Mpact 1 and the Mpact 2 interface to Rambus DRAMs and dissipate about 5 W total. "I anticipate that by embedding the memory and not having Rambus [it] could save you a couple of watts," he said. "It's speculation, but a full-blown Mpact 2 with embedded memory, modem, graphics and the works might dissipate 2 W. If you're doing graphics only, it will be less than a watt."
The embedded-DRAM scheme would place Toshiba among a short list of suppliers that have merged DRAM with their graph-ics cores, or plan to within the next year. Ironically, the company has agreed to manufacture graphics chips with integrated memory under a foundry arrangement for would-be competitor NeoMagic Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.)
Chromatic's strategy of providing software upgrades for its media processors while licensing the architecture to outside manufacturing partners-including Toshiba, SGS-Thomson and LG Semicon-has had mixed success. Launched in 1995, the company got high marks for its multiprocessing, very-long instruction word architecture, but was unable to execute on time because its Mediaware 1.0 firmware was a year behind schedule. "We all paid a high price for that," Nogaki said.
Later firmware was often disjointed and lacked key modules because Chromatic wasn't able to complete the specifications on time, according to several of its manufacturing partners. Chromatic acknowledged the problems, but claimed to have surmounted them. "We've passed the rough spot in the road," Wilt said. "If you think about what we set out to do independently and at the same time blazing a trail for Mediaware, there was a lot of learning to do."
The company received some redemption earlier this year when it developed a specialized firmware specifically for DVD. The software took three months to create, and Chromatic nabbed design wins from PC makers Gateway 2000 and Micron Electronics. To Chromatic, this seemed like proof that its bid to provide a programmable multimedia processor is beginning to gain acceptance. "You can't spin silicon out that fast," Wilt said.
Though Mpact 2 isn't being positioned as a full-function multimedia device, manufacturers hope it will eventually take on that role in sub-$1,000 PCs and systems designed by lower-tier PC makers. "Once there's more knowledge and interest in Mpact, we think second- and third-tier OEMs will try to use it as an all-in-one," said Jim McGregor, marketing development manager for SGS-Thomson (Phoenix)
The Mpact 2 itself represents the first major redesign of the Mpact architecture. The device doubles the clock speed from 62 to 125 MHz, and includes architectural enhancements such as a 32-bit floating-point unit, 35-stage 3-D pipeline and 2 kbytes of texture cache. The chip also supports two channels-or up to 8 Mbytes-of Rambus or Concurrent Rambus DRAM, which will enable bandwidths of 1.3 Gbytes/second.
The addition of the floating-point unit is significant, since most graphics companies are adding one to their designs to handle the setup portion of 3-D rendering. Toshiba said the FPU is capable of performing 500 million instructions/s.
The chip, however, will only support 1X AGP without sidebanding, which is more or less equivalent to 33-MHz PCI. Toshiba's Nogaki said the 0.25-micron, Mpact 3 upgrade will support 2X AGP with sidebanding.
Toshiba claims it will be the first company to produce the Mpact 2 starting in October. SGS-Thomson said it will begin sampling the device in the fourth quarter, with production in early 1998. LG Semicon could not be reached for comment.
Copyright (c) 1997 CMP Media Inc. |
