[mythtv-users] SpursEngine (Cell-based video card)

Marc Randolph mrand at pobox.com
Wed Oct 1 20:34:21 UTC 2008


On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 2:24 PM, David Schlenk <mythtv at schdav.org> wrote:
> http://www.pcworld.com/article/151725/toshiba_video_chip.html?tk=rss_news
>
> Of course it will need to cost 1/3 less and have linux support before
> I'd even try it, but down the road maybe its a solution to offloading
> x264 to a video card.

Howdy David,

I think you'll have it (a lot?) sooner via Intel - my understanding is
that they are already well on their way to doing H.264 decoding in
their own chipsets with the Intel G45 and the Intel System Controller
Hub ("SCH"... combined North+South bridge.  The first one is numbered
"US15W").  I assume that AMD has something also.  The Intel and AMD
solutions won't take near the power, space, or cost that this Toshiba
chip will - hence the reason I I think very few motherboard vendors
(except Toshiba) will use the SpursEngine.  It'll be restricted to the
second tier video card vendors.

This thing looks like it might also help with offloading _encoding_
though... so combine it with a video capture front-end to provide
video encoding (alternative to the HD-PVR).  Or maybe useful for H.264
based video conferencing.

Interesting non-the-less though.

Have fun,

   Marc


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