Multifunctional MPEG Chips
Dec 1, 2001 12:00 PM, BY LARRY BLOOMFIELD
Multifunctional MPEG Chips
Mention the name Dr. Sho Long Chen, PhD, in circles of those familiar with MPEG chip design and you’ll see heads nod in recognition of her achievements. Her more recent accomplishments and contributions to the MPEG community include a pair of chips that are multi-functional MPEG devices. The VW2005 is an encoder chip and the VW2010 is a CODEC (Encode/Decode) chip, both of which address MPEG-1, 2, 4 and H.263 audio and video.
The rapidly evolving MPEG-4 standard reduces bandwidth and storage requirements and improves video quality relative to MPEG-2. MPEG-4 breaks through the last mile access bandwidth bottleneck and enables an end-to-end, seamless video distribution over any network to anywhere at anytime. By incorporating MPEG-4 into these new chips, not only do they support new digital entertainment applications such as PVR, DVD recording and PC capture, but they also enable video transmission over any broadband network for video-on-demand, video streaming, conferencing and surveillance applications.
The new chips offer high-performance motion estimation and rate control algorithms, Variable Bit Rate (VBR), Constant Bit Rate (CBR) statistical multiplexing capability, video filters, and fast-scene change detection and recovery. Through its on-chip digital signal processing (DSP), they support MPEG-1 Layer I, II and III (MP3), MPEG-2 Layer I and II, 2-channel AAC (used in Japanese broadcasting) or AC-3, and many common voice CODECs. The compressed audio and video streams along with user data are multiplexed using an on-chip reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processor into (video CD –MEG1) VCD, Super-VCD, DVD or MPEG-2 Elementary, Transport or Program Streams.
Utilizing the simple application programming interface (API) and graphic user interface (GUI), the chip offers consumer electronics significant advantages over competitive solutions. With backwards compatibility to H.263, these chips enable video conferencing customers to leverage their existing infrastructure with a cost-effective roadmap to MPEG-1, 2 & 4 based conferencing configurations. These chips enable video distribution through network routers and switches, video servers, set-top boxes, personal video recorders, digital camcorders, security cameras and Internet video creators.
Send questions and comments to: larry_bloomfield@intertec.com
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