MANHASSET, N.Y. — AMD has unveiled a system-on-chip (SoC) solution for portable media players that supports direct video content transfer to digital video recorders and scaling to DVD-quality displays. At the same time, AMD is partnering with TiVo to support its new DVR initiative.
Designated the Au1200, AMD's processor is said to offer long battery life and does not require a digital signal processor or complex DSP coding. By integrating media acceleration hardware and media player software, AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) believes the processor can help makers of media players speed time-to-market and possibly offer more affordable devices.
The ability to connect directly to digital video recorders and transfer video content without having to transcode the file through a PC is significant, AMD said, as it reduces the time spent downloading and playing back fresh video content on a portable media player.
AMD is partnering with DVR manufacturer TiVo to support the TiVo-To-Go initiative, which enables direct transfer of programs from a Series2 TiVo DVR directly to portable media players, laptops and other portable devices.
Once content is on the media player, the processor provides a DVD-quality display that can be scaled directly to screens as large as 1024 x 768 without compromising image quality. The Au1200 is designed to support industry-standard media formats including MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV9, H.263 and DivX.
The processor consumes less than 400 milliwatts at 400 MHz and supports both Windows CE.NET and Linux. It incorporates AES-128 data encryption/decryption.
AMD plans to make the Au1200 processor available in production quantities the second quarter of 2005 in 333MHz, 400MHz and 500MHz versions. In 10,000 unit quantities, the 333MHz version is priced at $22.50.
RSS
Digital
10 emerging technologies to watch:
EE Times has compiled a list of emerging technologies that we think will be worth watching out for in 2010. Biofeedback or thought-control of electronics are among the contenders.
10 CEOs out in 2009:
It's been a tough year for the global electronics industry and CEOs. We survey the dismissal of 10 industry CEOs during the first three quarters of 2009 and what's ahead for the rest of the year.
Executive pay:
The economy stinks. Rank-and-file engineers are feeling the pain. What about technology CEOs? We crunched the numbers buried in corporate financial statements to find out. Here's what we found.
10 companies in trouble (revisited):
What follows is an updated version of 10 companies in trouble. Some companies have been removed since the last version, others remain. Still others have been added to the mix.
Early predictions for 2010:
The electronics industry is recovering, but there is still some uncertainty in the market. Some see a boom year in 2010. Some see a double dip. So what's in store for the rest of this year and 2010?
Top 10 IC vendors with cash:
The world's biggest IC companies by revenue rank not only among the best in their respective industry segments but are also more likely to have huge piles of cash that can be used to fund acquisitions, R&D and product development.
Notable women in microelectronics:
There is no better time than a global economic recession to examine the keys to successful corporate governance. So, EE Times has compiled an international list that celebrates women who are business and technology leaders in semis.
EE Times updates Silicon 60:
Seventeen companies have been added to the lastest version of our Silicon 60 list of emerging startups. Forty-three companies survived as emerging companies that are still worth watching.
RSS| 
Digital| 
Mobile
