>>>It's not a simple linear relationship with your AVERAGE bitrate. That is, an 18.5 mbit/sec 1920x1080 bitstream is not just 2x harder to decode than a 9.25 mbit/sec DVD bitstream. Try 3x or 4x.<<<
No kidding. Forget average bitrate. Talk about number of macroblocks when thinking bandwidth. But your point was that even a PIII/500 would be 100% saturated just doing the VLD and my point was that's only the case if the software guys can't program their way out of a paper bag.
>>>You must command the h/w accelerator for each and every macroblock. That part at least scales with the sample rate increase, which is 6x in this case.<<<
Right, almost 6x as many blocks but this doesn't mean it takes 6 times as much CPU power! The iDCT parsing/reencoding/passing to the hardware takes up only a small percentage of the CPU cycles on a per frame basis. If a PIII/500 only takes 20% CPU usage, I hope you're not implying that a 1920 stream would take up 120% usage. Remember it's also doing AC-3, Navigation, parsing, Windows OS calls etc. which will remain more or less constant.
>>>A probable reason software DVD players still exist with high ASP's: simply another way to milk a few extra dollars from the OEM.<<<
They can milk the dollars from the OEM's whether they sell software or hardware decoders. In case you haven't noticed, it's a considerable cost savings in the long run to go with software in this case -- both for ATI and for the OEM's.
>>>This is a cash strapped business. ATI could barely afford the $70M for Chromatic. Yet they are #1 in this business<<<
Cash strapped?? If I remember correct, they had MORE than that sitting in the bank in cash before the acquisition. Maybe someone can clarify, but I seem to remember a $90M figure. As the leader, they can do things like this. People didn't realize it at the time, but it was a very important strategic maneouver to gain even larger marketshare and one that will have a huge return on investment. And we're not talking years from now, we're talking starting from the end of this year or early next year. |
