C-Cube's NLE chip..................................
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C-CUBE LANDS MPEG-2 DESIGN WINS
C-Cube Microsystems Inc.[CUBE] will make its next generation of DVx MPEG-2 codecs available in volume later this quarter, and the company already has commitments for the chips from leading non-linear video-editing hardware manufacturers Pinnacle Systems Inc. [PCLA] and FAST Multimedia.
Both companies plan to ship products based on the silicon in the fourth quarter. Fast's 601will incorporate the DVxpress 7112, the more expensive of the two chips, and is expected to ship in the fourth quarter for $15,000. Pinnacle also is aiming for the fourth quarter with a prosumer product expected to be less than $5,000.
The DVxpress 7112 enables multiple-stream decoding and makes it possible to add transitions between those streams, such as fades and wipes.
"That's what caught our attention," Ajay Chopra, Pinnacle's vice president and general manager of desktop products, told Multimedia Week. "We're talking to everybody in this space, and nobody that we know of has got that kind of product in the works."
As the market moves toward MPEG-2 as the format for video distribution and eventually acquisition, C-Cube is ahead of the curve. But the company's head start is no guarantee of dominance in this emerging market. Pinnacle doesn't expect the non-linear editing market for MPEG-2 products to peak until 2001....
...The MPEG-2 codec require 8 MB of on-bard SDRAM and 32 to 64 MB of DRAM to operate. The 7110 will be available for $175 in volumes of 20,000 and the 7112 will be $300 in volumes (C-Cube, 408/490-8000; Pinnacle, 650/526-1600; Fast, 425/489-5009; see MMW, Aug. 25, 1997 and Jan. 28, 1998 for related stories) |
