Media Processors. Anybody can decode DVD...........................
techweb.com
Hung up on software
The big challenge, however, lies in software-specifically compilers to quickly and efficiently optimize a given media processor. To date, that's been elusive. While many argue that C-language coding can rule the day, more often than not engineers have to hand-code parts of the processor design to get efficient optimization for parallelism. Forcing merchant customers to take this route is a grim idea.
"VLIW architecture may be convenient because it can be described with C language.
But C language is basically for serial processing and is not very suitable to describe parallel processing," said Sharp's Miyata. "When pursuing really high performance in parallel operations, I doubt whether C language is suitable." Sharp switched from C language to assembler to describe parallel processing around 1992.
At Equator, software is seen as key. "A high degree of parallelism can be achieved without software programming pain by our compiler technology," O'Donnell claimed.
As for cost, it's too early to tell if media processors can catch up to hardwired ASICs, according to analyst McCarron. "The fact that Chromatic and TriMedia have not gone [away] yet shows some promise."
John Monti, vice president of marketing at Chromatic, confirmed that Mpact is the only media processor on the market solely focused on the PC space. The company is selling 2.5 million units of its Mpact-based PC DVD solutions a year, he said-"5 percent of the consumer desktop PC market."
Chromatic is working on a digital TV solution for PCs based around Mpact3, planned for the first quarter of 1999.
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