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FROM EDN EUROPE: DSP package targets handheld MPEG-4 devices

Using its Jazz configurable-DSP architecture, Improv Systems has developed Crescendo, a bundled product targeting embedded application-specific designs for handheld and portable multimedia consumer products. Crescendo combines a processor core for streaming-media processing and associated intellectual property and software. It includes interfaces to popular host processors, such as those from ARM and MIPS. It supports the MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile for broadcast-quality video. You can achieve this quality at clock rates of approximately 120 MHz and MPEG decoding requiring only 28 MHz. MPEG decoding of CIF at 20 frames/sec occurs at less than 30 MHz, and encoding of the same stream requires 100 MHz. The product also supports accompanying audio streams, including Dolby Digital; Prologic; or MPEG-1, -2, and 3. You can achieve this level of processing for 20-frame/sec display on portable screens at a realistic power level, Improv claims; the company also says that it is monitoring the progress of the ITU H.26L broadcast-video standard and will migrate the Crescendo offering to support it when necessary.

Improv Systems , +1-978-927-0555, www.improvsys.com.