New LSI Logic media processors to fuel IPTV development, says Saffari
Apr 24, 2007 8:00 AM
IPTVU: What sort of bandwidth performance can telcos using Domino[X] Pro-based products expect initially for HD and SD channels?
Bob Saffari: LSI focused on solving the most difficult HD challenges first. The LSI single-pass 1920x1080i HD encoder achieves state-of-the-art video quality at 6Mb/s to 8Mb/s bit-rate. Other solutions available in the market require dual- or triple-pass encoding to achieve the same level of quality at the same bit-rate.
IPTVU: Is there room for greater bandwidth efficiencies over time with this architecture?
Bob Saffari: Absolutely. The performance and flexibility of the Domino[X] Pro gives our customers a path to constantly and continuously improve BW efficiency and provide greatly reduced bit-rates over time. The key is the Domino[X] Pro’s powerful architecture that performs in the TOPS (tera operations per second) range. When combined with our customers’ algorithms and system expertise, quality is improved, and bit-rates are reduced year to year.
IPTVU: Unlike terrestrial broadcasters, IPTV operators are not locked into 1080i as a transmission standard for HD. Could Domino[X] Pro offer sufficient performance to make IPTV delivery of 1080p full HD practical, and are you aware of any interest in doing so, perhaps to offer it as a premium subscription tier?
Bob Saffari: Yes. It is really up to IPTV providers. Until now, most IPTV providers have focused on enabling 1920 x 1080i or 720p60 HD, which is challenging enough. For 1080p60, the raw bandwidth required is effectively doubled.
With architectural advancements and algorithm improvements of scalable encoders like the Domino[X] Pro, 1080p60 delivery through IPTV networks is now feasible because it can be delivered with high quality at 8Mb/s to 10Mb/s. The other side of the equation is also critical, meaning the set-top boxes need to be capable of decoding 1080p60 content. We envision that 2009 will be the year for 1080p60 (full HD) STB trials and deployments.
IPTVU: Could you quantify how powerful the Domino[X] architecture is in terms of operations, and how does it compare to previous LSI encoding chips? Can vendors making products for the IPTV market scale up the performance of their products by adding additional Domino[X] chips to their designs?
Bob Saffari: The Domino[X] Pro is our sixth generation of codec media processors and is capable of performing 250 BOPS for media processing. To put things in perspective, our previous generation product was capable of performing 29 BOPS for Motion Estimation, a key building block for superior compression.
The new Domino[X] performs close to 175 BOPS for the same function. The performance of our Video DSP functions also has increased substantially, by a factor of almost 10. We now have 75 BOPS dedicated to media processing.
With the addition of a general-purpose MIPS processor to the Domino[x], the architecture is now reaching close to 900 MIPS performance just for high-level tasks, allowing more flexibility for image analysis and system operations compared to only 300 MIPS in previous generation encoders. Last but not least, our inter-chip communication interface has 2.7 times more bandwidth than past implementations, going from 75MB/s to 200MB/s. Massive amounts of video data can be exchanged between processors, improving search ranges and compression efficiency.
The Domino[X] is a scalable platform. Increasing the number of processors scales up the performance.
IPTVU: What other markets and applications do you envision for the Domino[X] Pro product family?
Bob Saffari: The Domino[X] Pro product family addresses a wide range of professional markets and applications, including ENG and satellite news gathering, mobile TV broadcast infrastructure, Blu-ray and HD DVD authoring, and downloadable DVDs for retail kiosks.
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