3/8/99
BILL FERSTER’S VIDEOGRAPHICS NEWSWIRE
ISSUE 99-6
ABOUT THIS NEWSWIRE
Bill Ferster’s VideoGraphics NewsWire is published bi-weekly and summarizes the important events in the convergent worlds of multimedia, video, animation, chips, mass storage and computers.
Please feel free to forward this NewsWire to someone who might appreciate an item, or heaven forbid, might want to subscribe to it. Please refrain, however, from continually mailing it to others on a regular basis. You can visit my website for more information, as well as read and search past issues of this NewsWire, at http:/www.stagetools.com/bill.
BROADCAST / POST-PRODUCTION
---> Inscriber and Chyron Team up on Duet Product
Talk about strange bedfellows. Leading software CG maker Inscriber Technologies (http://www.inscriber.com) and leading hardware CG pioneer Chyron (http://www.chryron) announced that an enhanced version of Inscriber’s highly acclaimed "Inscriber VMP 4.0" product will be created to run on Chyron’s open-platform NT-based "Duet" system. Inscriber VMP contains an online CG, still store, motion effects, and alpha-aware paint capabilities.
---> Pinnacle Introduces Video Server
Leading video equipment maker Pinnacle Systems (http://www.pinnaclesys.com) will show their first entry into the video server market this NAB with their "Thunder" series multi-channel video and audio clip servers. They have the ability to route any of the 4 streams through integrated keyer and switcher functions, and can be controlled using industry standard Odetics protocol. The server offers video in resolutions ranging up to full D1, and automatically creates a low-res proxy for easy Internet searching.
---> Good OnStage! Article in TV Technology
Jay Ankeney wrote a very complementary article about OnStage! in the recent issue of TV-Technology Magazine. Check it out at (http://www.stagetools.com/tvtech.com).
IMAGING
---> LSI Shows Image Processing Chip
Chipmaker LSI Logic (http://www.lsilogic.com/) introduced a new image-processing chip aimed at mega-pixel digital cameras. The "DCAM-103" previews, captures, compresses, stores, and displays
digital still images on a single chip, and can process up to 2K by 2K images at 30fps.
---> Ulead Offers Web-based Image Editing
Leading OEM imaging software provider Ulead Systems (http://209.60.132.8/effect/index1.htm) is offering a combination of product and service that is interesting for that very reason. Their "Image Mechanic" processes images users upload to their site, and the processed image returned back. It offers an intriguing glimpse at a new model for distributed graphics tools.
---> Innovative 3D Stereographic Technique
EE Times (http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?EET19990222S0020) reported a very clever new technique for showing 3D stereographic images on LCD monitors without annoying glasses. David Traynor and Edwina Orr have married an LCD screen with a mask containing horizontal stripes of a holographic image with a horizontal fresnel lens. All are aligned with the LCD’s horizontal scan lines. The sense of 3D is achieved by the up and down head motion The COGs for the mask is about $5.
3D TECHNOLOGY
---> Parallel Processing 3D Render Chip
With a name like Wicked3D (http://www.wicked3d.com), this chip better be baad. The Wicked3D Board Company claims to have a new parallel graphics-processing engine aimed at the games market that will outperform current 3D accelerators by 50%.
---> Sony Offers Specs for New PlayStation Chip
Sony (http://www.playstation.com) released some information about the new chip destined for use in the PlayStation 2 games console. The new chip will support AC-3 and MPEG2 decoding, runs at 300mHz, has geometric acceleration for rendering 66M polygons per second, 1394, USB and PCMCIA interfaces.
CHIPS
---> Altera and Extensa Promote Reconfigurable Computing
Not wanting to have Xilinx get all the limelight in the emerging RC market, rival FPGA-maker Altera (http://www.altera.com) and Tensilica (http://www.tensilica.com) have joined forces to create an RC development system based on Altera’s high-capacity PLD chips. The "XT1000" system allows Tensilica's 32-bit synthesizable Xtensa CPU core to run on Altera's EPF10K200E PLD.
---> New Vector-Based DSP Processor
DSP Technologies (www.DSParchitectures.com) is proffering a new signal processing technology based on hard-coded vector-math instructions on their new DSP-24 chip, claiming an order of magnitude speed increase over traditional DSP in certain functions, such as FFT, FIR and DFT functions.
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SUBSCRIPTIONS
Bill Ferster’s VideoGraphics NewsWire is published weekly and summarizes the important events in the convergent worlds of multimedia, video, animation, chips, mass storage and computers.
The cost is $49 per quarter billed to your MasterCard, Visa or American Express card. You may cancel anytime you like for a pro-rated refund. I regret that the administrative billing overhead prohibits me from accepting checks and purchase orders. Corporate site licenses can be negotiated. Students, Schools and other educational facilities may receive the NewsWire at no charge.
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CYA DISCLAIMER: The preceding NewsWire represents my best efforts to gather the facts and the offering of my opinions. Although I try to describe the world as it appears me, I make no representations as to the accuracy of the reports within, which are gleaned from press releases, print and online magazines and the Inquisit Information Service.
