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Sand Video plans real-time H.264 codec in '03By Andover, Ma. --- Startup Sand Video Inc. is n, a startup based in Andover, Mass., is planning delivery of a new processor next year that supports the real-time encoding and decoding of standard-definition video images in accordance with H.264. An emerging standard gaining increased interest from consumer electronics and chip manufacturers, the H.264 standard, also known as MPEG 4, Part 10, could completely reshuffle the lineup of video market players over the next few years, industry insiders said. A growing number of chip makers are seeking a piece of the H.264 pie. VideoLocus Inc. (Waterloo, Ontario) and Heinrich-Hertz-Institut fuer Nachrichtentechnik Berlin GmbH (Berlin) appeared to have early leads in the development of an H.264 codec. Texas Instruments Inc. (Dallas) and Equator Technologies Inc. (Campbell, Calif.) plan to run H.264 video algorithms on their DSPs. Amphion Semiconductor Ltd. (Belfast, Northern Ireland), a supplier of intellectual property, plans to launch an H.264 IP core in the third quarter of 2003. Sand Video's approach is fundamentally different from that of other early competitors, said executive vice president Don Shulsinger. "We offer a full SD [standard definition]-resolution video codec, in real-time, without throwing away many tools" that enable high-quality H.264 coding. Shulsinger said that other H.264 solutions, especially those involving a DSP, "tend to sacrifice image quality and lower the resolution, because it's almost impossible to do the real-time H.264 encoding using all the tools," he said. New beast Many video experts in the chip industry find H.264 a new beast compared to MPEG-2 in terms of its algorithm complexity. It also requires a different set of tools than MPEG-2, such as spatial predictions, that are new to many designers. The multiple sizes of the macro blocks deployed in the standard will also be unfamiliar to designers. Sand Video said it is using 41 tools in its video codec IC. "You can't just pick a few tools to gain 80 percent in video compression efficiency," Shulsinger said. "You need a full set of tools to achieve the real coding gain." Programmable features Sand Video is still keeping its H.264 IC architecture close to its vest, but Shulsinger said it will come with a certain level of programmability "to support multiple algorithms and potential changes in the standard that may happen late in the game." The chip will use some programmable IP cores licensed from others, he said. The startup only has an algorithm simulation available today, but is preparing a silicon implementation. "We are about to show a piece of hardware which is generating a lot of interest," Shulsinger said. Working silicon is promised for 2003. The company is already in "advanced discussions with a number of major players in the video industry in the Far East and the United States," Shulsinger claimed. The company's H.264 video codec will maintain complete backwards compatibility with the existing MPEG standard. Moreover, it will be "cost competitive to the current generation MPEG-only codec," Shulsinger promised. Founded in January 2001, Sand Video closed $8 million of private equity financing earlier this month. The company was previously self-financed by its 15 employees, many of whom came from Oak Technology Inc.'s imaging division. Shulsinger was a founder of Pixel Magic, which Oak acquired in 1995. For more information about the issues, products and technologies in this story, go to the iAppliance Web Views page and call up the associatively-linked XML/Java Web map of the iApplianceWeb site and search for product information since the beginning of 2002. |
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