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Tag: chip

  • AMD Launches Chip For HDTV-on-the-PC


    AMD has launched a chip offering HDTV viewing capabilities on desktop and notebook PCs around the world using analog, digital and free-to-air broadcast signals.

    The company says the ATI Theater HD 750 PC TV chip uses advanced video processing and signal reception technologies to give an authentic HD home theater feel on the PC.

    Matt Skynner, vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD Products Group, said that with the proper connectors, the chip allowed notebook users to enjoy TV on their PC virtually anywhere in the world.

    He said the ATI Theater HD 750 is compatible with HDTV/DTV/analog broadcast signals including NTSC, PAL/SECAM, ATSC, ClearQAM and DVB-T.2.

    The ATI Theater HD 750 is scheduled to be available later this year in a variety of solutions including PCI Express add-in cards, USB "stick" and others.

    Other features offered include:

    • Ability to take recorded content on the go by capturing and converting recorded TV shows into popular video formats such as H.264, AVI, MPEG, DivX, WMV and MPEG4 for use on portable media devices.
    • By using Windows Vista Media Center, Windows® XP Media Center Edition or the forthcoming Windows 7, consumers can schedule recordings and watch, pause and rewind live TV programs
    • Consumers can also store recorded programs on the PC hard drive, eliminating the problem of limited storage capacity found with most digital video recorders (DVR)

    A preview trailer is embedded below:

  • NEC Upconverting Chip Promises Sharper Full HD Image


    NEC Electronics has announced a new chip that reduces blurring when SD images and video are expanded and displayed in 1920 x 1080 resolution HDTVs.

    The µPD9280GM is also capable of supporting one billion colors (30-bits color depths – or "Deep Color"), which enhances color vividness and accuracy of display, according to the company.

    Another feature of the super-resolution ASSP is an increased operating frequency of 150 megahertz (MHz), compared to the previous 108 MHz.

    This enables the advanced processing of image data and boosts images with higher resolution even on full HD television broadcasts.

    The µPD9280GM’s super-resolution technology also enables high-resolution processing with just one frame of image data.

    This reduced processing load eliminates the need for expensive, external high-capacity memory.

    Conventional image-resolution technologies use a multiframe technique to process image data, which require large-capacity external memory – making it expensive and difficult to create hardware capable of real-time processing.

    NEC said the new chip will help to better archive valuable images, data and memories previously recorded with only low-resolution technology in various applications, from security camera and automotive backup camera to medical endoscope.

    Mass production is scheduled to begin in July 2009, starting from 100,000 units per month, and expected to reach approximately 1,000,000 units by 2010.

  • ESS Technology Offers Single-chip VoIP Solution


    ESS Technology has released a new chip for VoIP phones.

    By embedding two subscriber line interface circuits (SLICs) along with an Ethernet switch, ESS says the ES9701 will provide a high level of integration at a low cost for both VoIP adapters and applications.

    Included in its features is a 32-bit RISC processor, an AES encryption module and an LCD display with keypad interface.

    The ES9701 also comes packaged with a VoIP phone/adapter reference design as well as a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) stack.

    Robert Wong, the firm’s vice-president of marketing and worldwide sales, said the ES9701 enables rapid development of VoIP phones and adapters at the lowest system cost."

    "Finally, we can have affordable VoIP for everyone," he said.

  • Intel to help VoIP virtualisation


    New CPUs from Intel based on the upcoming Nehalem core architecture will improve VoIP virtualisation.

    The new processors will be targetted at the virtualisation and communications sectors, according to a report in Comms Dealer.

    Intel has released some new details of its upcoming CPU range, including its new Xeon 7400, claiming a 40 per cent performance in Hyper-V performance in VMWare tests.

    Virtualisation – running multiple operating systems on one server – can reduce the hardware footprint and increase power efficiency.

    However Comms Dealers said many IT managers are reluctant to virtualise business critical applications like VoIP and unified communications, citing reliability and performance concerns.

    It said the new processor family also includes significant improvements to instruction sets for handling multimedia.

    Intel claims that these will enable high definition video conferencing using the H.264 codec on laptops.

  • First single-chip processing LSI developed by Panasonic for Blue-ray Disc players

    Panasonic has announced that it has developed the first single-chip signal processing LSI for Blu-ray Disc players that can both read the disc and decode the content.
    Previously these functions were performed by separate front end and back end LSI in addition to seven external memory chips.
    By combining the functionality into one chip, 50 per cent less space is required and 25 per cent energy is saved.
    As a result of the single chip solution, manufacturers will be able to make smaller Blu-ray players that consume less energy.
    The innovation is also likely to result in cheaper Blu-ray playback devices.
    The Panasonic chips support Blu-ray 2.0 standard, MPEG-4 H.264 and VC-1 codecs and high-quality audio, including lossless coded content.
    The chip is also able to play back video on two screens and can display 3D graphics.
    It also supports CD and DVD playback.
    Panasonic expects to start shipping the chips to manufacturers in June 2008.