28th September 2005 – Aspex Semiconductor™, a UK-based semiconductor company developing leading-edge software programmable extreme processors, has launched the Accelera High Definition (HD) MPEG-2 Encoder – an accelerated, future-proofed HD platform for video compression.

The Accelera HD MPEG-2 Encoder is a PC-based plug-in board which dramatically accelerates the performance of PC-based MPEG-2 HD video encoding. Based on Aspex’s Linedancer extreme processors, the solution is resolution independent and 100 per cent software programmable. This ensures that there is a painless software upgrade path for acceleration of advanced HD encoding standards such as H264/AVC, VC1 and JPEG 2000.

The Accelera platform also benefits from Linedancer’s unique scalability, enabling multiple boards to be added to a system to achieve faster than real-time encoding performance for more demanding applications.

Developed with MainConcept, the accelerated solution maintains the same API as MainConcept’s leading MPEG-2 software encoder. This allows existing applications to free up valuable processor resource, and immediately benefit from a significant uplift in encoding performance by providing customers with a plug and play solution.

The Accelera HD MPEG-2 Encoder is compatible with many third party applications, giving video editing and post-producti! on facilities the chance to inject a performance boost into their current encoding processes. Additionally, the platform can be used to accelerate other functions in the workflow – such as video effects processing and colour correction – creating a cost-effective, easy to implement platform.

“By joining forces with MainConcept, the leader in MPEG-2 encoder software, we’re offering customers a unique plug and play acceleration capability for the time-consuming video compression process,” said Jeremy Hendy, vice president of marketing for Aspex Semiconductor. “Even the latest Intel and AMD dual-processor systems can’t keep up with HD and digital cinema compression. Each of our Accelera boards has more than 16,000 processors working in parallel, doing the heavy lifting required for vi! deo compression at two megapixels and beyond. The solution lets our post-production customers spend more time working on creative, value-added tasks, rather than watching the hourglass.”



“Because our solution is 100 per cent software programmable, customers will be able to use the same hardware to accelerate multiple functions and standards, such as H264 and VC1,” added Hendy.



The MPEG-2 encoder will be operating at main profile, high level supporting progressive and interlaced input formats.

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