CAST JPEG 2000 Encoder Core Now Faster and More Capable.Second-generation core nearly doubles throughput speed and now integrates Tier-1 and Tier-2 functions to handle the biggest HDTV (High Definition TV) A set of digital television (DTV) standards that offer the highest resolution and sharpest picture. Although some HDTV sets are available in standard (rather square) screen sizes, the overwhelming majority of sets are wide screen, which eliminates images without an external processor SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Semiconductor intellectual property (IP) provider CAST, Inc. today announced a new version of its successful JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. 2000 Encoder Core. The new version is faster, requires no external processing, adds significant features, and is customizable and highly scalable. It will ship next quarter (Q307). First introduced in 2002, CAST's JPEG2K-E IP core is successfully in use by multiple military and aerospace customers for various demanding applications. It--and the new version--provide high-quality compression of still or video images using the JPEG 2000 standard (ISO/IEC ISO/IEC International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ITU-T M 3000) 15444-1). This flexible JPEG 2000 standard offers both lossless See lossless compression. (algorithm, compression) lossless - A term describing a data compression algorithm which retains all the information in the data, allowing it to be recovered perfectly by decompression. Unix compress and GNU gzip perform lossless compression. and lossy compression A compression technique that does not decompress data back to 100% of the original. Lossy methods provide high degrees of compression and result in very small compressed files, but there is a certain amount of loss when they are restored. , and it can achieve superior image quality with higher compression ratios (for smaller file sizes) than the ordinary JPEG standard. Though not yet widely used for web-based images, JPEG 2000 has proven invaluable for certain specialized applications. For example, frame-by-frame Motion JPEG 2000 is seen as the best technology for digital film compression, and has been adopted by the Digital Cinema Initiatives Digital Cinema Initiatives or DCI is a consortium of studios formed to establish a standard architecture for digital cinema systems. The idea for DCI was originally mooted late 1999 by Tom McGrath, then COO of Paramount Pictures, who applied to the U.S. (DCI (Display Control Interface) An Intel/Microsoft programming interface for full-motion video and games in Windows. It allowed applications to take advantage of video accelerator features built into the display adapter. ) consortium and others. Built on already-proven code, the new version of the JPEG2K-E Encoder Core is a major advance that improves processing and makes it significantly easier to integrate JPEG 2000 in ASIC- or FPGA-based systems. It features: * Nearly twice the processing speed of the previous version, with some of the fastest processing rates available: over 100 MSamples/sec for FPGAs and over 200 MSamples/sec for ASICs. * A new rate control capability, by which image quality is maximized while maintaining a constant post-compression bit rate that satisfies a system's transmission and decoding requirements. * Expanded support for arbitrary large images, now handling frame sizes up to 4096 by 4096 pixels without tiling, ensuring efficient processing of even the largest HDTV images. * Full hardware handling of both Tier-1 and Tier-2 JPEG 2000 encoding, eliminating the need to do Tier-2 encoding in software running on an additional processor. This latter feature is most significant, as it means the JPEG2K-E does a more complete job than most similar cores, receiving pixel data and generating an immediately-usable, fully-compliant output stream with no extra processor or programming required. Besides reducing chip area and product cost, this plus other features of the core make the JPEG2K-E one of the easiest available in terms of system integration and software development effort. The JPEGK2-E core was developed by CAST partner Alma Technologies (www.alma-tech.com). It will ship in the next quarter, in synthesizable RTL (Register Transfer Level) A high-level hardware description language (HDL) for defining digital circuits. The circuits are described as a collection of registers, Boolean equations, control logic such as "if-then-else" statements as well as complex event sequences; for ASICs or optimized netlists for Structured ASICs and FPGAs. Implementation results for the configurable and highly-scalable core vary greatly with application demands and user customization; see the web site for examples and more details at http://www.cast-inc.com/cores/jpeg2k-e. About CAST, Inc. CAST provides over 100 popular and standards-based IP cores for ASICs and FPGAs. Privately owned and operating since 1993, CAST has established a reputation for high-quality IP products, simple licensing, and responsive technical support. The company is headquartered near New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , partners with IP developers around the world, and works with select sales consultants and distributors throughout Europe and Asia. CAST, Inc. 11 Stonewall stone·wall v. stone·walled, stone·wall·ing, stone·walls v.intr. 1. Informal a. Court, Woodcliff Lake, NJ 07677 Tel: 201/391-8300 Fax: 201/391-8694 www.cast-inc.com CAST is a trademark of CAST, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
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