Chips and Technologies' HiQVideo Controller Brings Full Motion Video to New High Performance Toshiba Notebooks; Video controller delivers full motion video for conferencing, TV and entertainment applications.SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 1996--Chips and Technologies, Inc. and Toshiba America announced today the first notebook computer to incorporate Chips' HiQVideo graphics accelerator -- the new Tecra 720CDT CDT abbr. Central Daylight Time CDT Central Daylight Time CDT n abbr (US) (= Central Daylight Time) → hora de verano del centro; (BRIT multimedia notebook PC from Toshiba America Information Systems. Driven by Chips' HiQVideo 64-bit accelerator, the Tecra 720CDT is the first portable platform to bring the new Zoomed Video (ZV) Port technology and high quality, full motion video capabilities to business and home portable users. "Today's notebook computer users expect the same graphics and video capability from their notebooks as they've demanded for their desktops," said Tim Erjavec, Director of Marketing at Chips and Technologies Chips and Technologies (C&T) was the first fabless semiconductor company, a model developed by its founder Gordon Campbell. Its first product was an EGA IBM compatible graphics chip. This was followed by chipsets for PC motherboards and other computer graphics chips. . "The Tecra 720CDT coupled with Chips' HiQVideo graphic accelerator enables and enhances the visual experience for applications such as multimedia presentations, video conferencing, TV-within-a-window, and games." With support from the HiQVideo accelerators, Toshiba's 720CDT is the first notebook to incorporate ZV port, a low cost, high-performance method of streaming video without interruption into notebook systems. Toshiba offers an optional ZV Port PC Card that together with the ZV Port built into the HiQVideo controller enable users to access numerous upgrade options by just inserting a card. Cards such as hardware MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing digital video. Pronounced "em-peg," it is the universal standard for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVDs and digital video recorders (DVRs). decompression, video capture cards, TV tuner cards and video conferencing cards are examples of the numerous applications. New Multimedia Notebook Standard As the latest addition to the Tecra series introduced in October 1995, Toshiba's Tecra 720CDT sets a new standard in multimedia notebook computing. The system features Intel's 133 MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. Pentium processor, a brilliant 12.1 inch 1024 x 768 high resolution display, a 6X CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). , advanced communications capabilities and 32-bit CardBus support. To maximize performance of the 2.9-V Pentium processor, the 720CDT adds a 256 KB second level external cache, 16 MBytes of high speed EDO DRAM, and a fast 33 MHz PCI bus. Total system memory is expandable to 144 MBytes. Multimedia support includes a modular 6X CD-ROM drive that offers a sustained data transfer rate of 1026 Kbytes/sec and full duplex 16-bit audio with MIDI, WAV and Sound Blaster Pro support. The Tecra 720CDT features two stacked PC Card slots that support either two Type II or one Type II 32-bit Card Bus cards. System options include a full-featured desktop docking solution with expansion slots for both PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). and ISA (1) (Instruction Set Architecture) See instruction set. (2) (Interactive Services Association) See Internet Alliance. (3) (Internet Security and Acceleration) See .NET. cards and a low-cost enhanced port replicator for docking to office peripherals. Zoom Video Offering a true "plug and play" environment, the new ZV port technology allows a user to select an external video application without the hassles of cabling, power-downs, or boot-ups. Supporting hot-insertion, a ZV Card can be removed and inserted without exiting running software applications or powering down. This convenient support opens a host of upgrade options for video applications that never existed before. Chips and Technologies, Toshiba and other hardware and software vendors have developed products for ZV port, which is currently a proposed extension to the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, San Jose, CA, www.pcmcia.org) An international standards body and trade association that was founded in 1989 to establish a standard for connecting peripherals to portable computers. PCMCIA created the PC Card. See PC Card. standard. By streaming video directly from the PCMCIA socket adapter to the graphics controller and the video frame buffer, the ZV port eliminates the need to send video and audio data through the CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. or system bus. Thus, this simple and effective method uses a well defined PCMCIA mechanical standard to bring video data streams into the portable environment. Full Motion Video Chips' HiQVideo series accelerators combine video acceleration with a high-performance graphics engine to deliver full screen video at 30 frames/sec (fps). The accelerators bring to the notebook user all fundamental capabilities needed to run Windows(r) 95-based multimedia presentation and video conferencing applications. The HiQVideo series implements independent video capture and display systems. The capture system places video data into memory while the display system places video data in a window on the screen. The display system can display data from anywhere in memory in any on-screen window. The data can be fractionally zoomed to fit any size window. Integrated horizontal and vertical interpolation interpolation In mathematics, estimation of a value between two known data points. A simple example is calculating the mean (see mean, median, and mode) of two population counts made 10 years apart to estimate the population in the fifth year. support coupled with a variable zoom feature allows the HiQVideo controller to provide smooth edges to minimize graininess and enhance display quality at any resolution. As a result, images such as human faces appear much more life-like and real. The capture system accepts video data from either the systems bus (PCI) or the video capture port that supports the ZV port option. This allows users to simultaneously display video streams from multiple sources and open multiple video windows. These features are critical in enabling video conferencing or TV-in-a-Window applications. The capture port accepts 4:2:2 YUV The color encoding system used for analog television worldwide (NTSC, PAL and SECAM). The YUV color space (color model) differs from RGB, which is what the camera captures and what humans view. or RGB (Red Green Blue) The computer's native color space, which is the color system for capturing and displaying images. RGB was derived from our own perception of color because human eyes are sensitive to red, green and blue (see trichromaticity). data and re-times and converts it to 24 bpp RGB. Interlaced video is easily captured through the port where odd and even fields are merged into progressively scanned frames. To minimize memory consumption, the on-chip circuits can scale down the incoming video data stream and store the information in a shared frame buffer. In addition, the unique double buffering scheme ensures that a complete frame of moving video is always available to the display controller even when resizing the video display window. Graphics Architecture Chips' HiQVideo family is based on a full 64-bit architecture with an integrated 64-bit BitBLT engine. Separate video and graphics pipelines further reduce system processor overhead and minimize memory requirements for video and graphic color depths. This provides all the performance and flexibility needed to support for higher resolution panels and monitors such as 1024 x 768 displays. The HiQVideo family integrates a direct interface to color and monochrome Single Drive (SS) and Dual Drive (DD), STN (SuperTwisted Nematic) A passive matrix LCD technology that provides better contrast than twisted nematic (TN) by twisting the molecules from 180 to 270 degrees. See DSTN. and TFT (Thin Film Transistor) The term typically refers to active matrix screens on laptop computers. Active matrix LCD provides a sharper screen display and broader viewing angle than does passive matrix. See LCD and thin film. TFT - Thin Film transistor panels. In addition, centering and stretching capabilities are included to allow the use of graphics modes not suited for high resolution panels. A variety of advanced power management support with flexible activity timers are included to minimize power consumption and extend battery life. Although optimized for 3.3V operation, the internal logic, memory and bus interface and panel interfaces can be independently configured to operate at 3.3 or 5 volts. Price and Availability Chips and Technologies is offering two products in the HiQVideo series: the HiQV32(tm) (also referred to by the part number 65550) and HiQV64(tm) (part number 65554). Both products are based on the full 64-bit internal engine. Packaged in a 208-pin plastic quad flat pack (PQFP (Plastic Quad Flat Package) Refers to many varieties of QFP chip packages, which are molded in plastic. See QFP. ), the HiQV32 is pin compatible with its predecessors, the 65548 and 65545 graphics display accelerators. The chip is in production now and is priced at $35 in 10,000 unit quantities. The HiQV64 is available in a 252 ball BGA (Ball Grid Array) A popular surface mount chip package that uses a grid of solder balls as its connectors. Available in plastic and ceramic varieties, BGA is noted for its compact size, high lead count and low inductance, which allows lower voltages to be used. package and adds an external 64-bit memory interface with support for 4 Mbytes of memory. Sampling now, the HiQV64 is priced at $40 for 10,000 unit quantities. About Chips Chips and Technologies, Inc., (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :CHPS CHPS Collaborative for High Performance Schools CHPS Certified in Healthcare Privacy and Security CHPS Center for Health Policy Studies (healthcare consulting firm with offices in New York, Maryland, and Illinois) CHPS Combat Hybrid Power System ) is a leading supplier of highly integrated semiconductor and software solutions which provide graphics, video and other capabilities to portable and desktop computers. -0- Note to Editors: Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft in the U.S. and other countries. HiQVideo is a trademark of Chips and Technologies, Inc. Sound Blaster Pro is a trademark of Creative Laboratories. All other products or service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners. CONTACT: Chips and Technologies, Inc. Tim Erjavec Tim Christoffersen, 408/434-0600 or MQPR MQPR M-Ary Quadrature Partial Response (Agency Contact) Matthew Quint, 510/651-9744 |
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