CompCore's AC-3 software first to be qualified by Dolby.SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16, 1996--CompCore Multimedia Inc. and Dolby Laboratories announced today qualification of CompCore's PC audio software implementation ("SoundPEG-2") of Dolby's AC-3 digital audio decoding technology known as Dolby Digital. CompCore's SoundPEG-2 is the first PC Dolby Digital software decoder to pass Dolby's quality tests. Software developer kits are available immediately from CompCore for qualified OEMs. SoundPEG-2 will be demonstrated by CompCore at the Interactive Multimedia Association Expo (IMA (Interactive Multimedia Association, Annapolis, MD) An earlier trade association founded in 1988 originally as the Interactive Video Industry Association. It provided an open process for adopting existing technologies and was involved in subjects such as networked services, scripting ), Jacob Javits Convention Center, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Sept. 17-19, Booth No. 2640. The Dolby Digital audio standard specifies how digital audio information can be encoded and decoded, significantly reducing storage requirements while maintaining fidelity with the original digital audio content. Dolby Digital is an integral component of soon to be available DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. (Digital Versatile Disc digital versatile disc or digital video disc (DVD), a small plastic disc used for the storage of digital data. The successor media to the compact disc (CD), a DVD can have as much as 26 times the storage capacity of a CD. ) products. DVD is an international standard for the recording and playing of digital video and audio information using very high density optical discs." "When we first initiated development of our Dolby Digital decoder, many industry leaders said it couldn't be done in software," said George Haber, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of CompCore Multimedia Inc. "Dolby's qualification of our software is confirmation that SoundPEG-2 is a valid low cost alternative to hardware implementations of Dolby Digital for the PC, and definitely complements our MPEG-2 video decoder software." "Dolby is very pleased to add CompCore's SoundPEG-2 to its list of Dolby Digital implementations qualified to use our logo," said Ed Schummer, vice president of licensing, Dolby Laboratories. "CompCore's software technology should help enable cost competitive DVD solutions for the PC." SoundPEG-2 supports full 5.1 channel decoding of Dolby Digital audio information and is compatible with existing PC audio cards. Since PC sound cards currently support two channel stereo, SoundPEG-2 decodes 5.1 channels and down-mixes to two channels. CompCore's audio software also supports Dolby Surround Pro Logic enabling as many as 4 audio channels through standard two channel PC sound cards. SoundPEG-2 is capable of operating on PC's including the Intel 486, current Pentiums, and future Pentium processors. For example, decoding 5.1 channels of Dolby Digital information using a 100 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 consumes only about 35% of 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. . Using a 200 MHz Pentium (P55C), the same computation requires only about 17% of the CPU. SoundPEG-2 software developer kits are now available from CompCore to qualified OEMs. ActiveMovie versions of SoundPEG-2 will be available later this year. SoundPEG-2 is a key component of CompCore's "SoftDVD" product family. SoftDVD is a complete software application program which enables PCs to play DVD content at a very low cost. SoftDVD will be available in two basic configurations: 1) an all-software version, and 2) a combination software and hardware version. The all-software version of SoftDVD performs DVD navigation, Dolby Digital audio decoding and MPEG-2 video decoding in software without requiring specialized hardware, but does require an Intel processor supporting MMX (MultiMedia EXtensions) A set of 57 additional instructions built into the Pentium MMX chip for improved multimedia and modem performance by performing mathematical operations on multiple sets of data at the same time (see SIMD). (multi-media extension) instructions. Shipments are expected during the first quarter of 1997. The combination software and hardware configuration of SoftDVD can utilize most any generally available MPEG-2 video decoding chip, and software for all other DVD functions. This configuration can run on any Pentium processor. SoftDVD can also interoperate with Dolby Digital audio decoding chips such as the Zoran AC-3 chip demonstrated by Intel with CompCore's MPEG-2 video decoder software earlier this year. CompCore Multimedia Inc. is the leading video and audio technology provider for 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). (Moving Pictures Expert Group) products. Founded in 1993, CompCore is a privately held California corporation headquartered in Santa Clara. CompCore offers MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 audio and video hardware designs to enable its OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and customers to manufacture and ship the highest quality, lowest cost MPEG products in the industry. CompCore will offer its latest AC-3 and DVD video hardware cores later this year. In addition, CompCore offers a software version of its MPEG-1 decoder technology called "SoftPEG" which supports Video CD 2.0. Over 6,000,000 copies of SoftPEG have been distributed worldwide since its introduction over one year ago. CompCore's technologies have been adopted by many of the world's largest personal computer, graphics board, and chip manufacturers including ATI (ATI Technologies Inc., Markham Ontario, http://ati.amd.com) A leading manufacturer of graphics chips and display adapters. Founded in 1985 by K. Y. Ho, Benny Lau and Lee Lau, ATI chips and boards are widely used by OEMs. , C-Cube, Cirrus Logic, Creative Labs, Diamond Multimedia, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Matrox, NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. , Oracle, Packard Bell, Panasonic, SGI (SGI, Sunnyvale, CA, www.sgi.com) A manufacturer of workstations and servers, founded in 1982 by Jim Clark. The company was founded as Silicon Graphics, Inc., but changed to its acronym in 1999. , Sharp, Sony and others. -0- Note To Editors: Dolby, AC-3 and Pro Logic are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. SoftPEG, SoftDVD and SoundPEG are trademarks of CompCore Multimedia Inc. Pentium and MMX are trademarks of Intel Corp. ActiveMovie is a trademark of Microsoft. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. CONTACT: CompCore Multimedia Inc. Ron Richter, 408/567-0552 Email: ron@compcore.com Web page: http://www.compcore.com or Kanner Public Relations, 212/545-7424 (for Dolby) Email: info@dolby.com Web page: http://www.dolby.com Literature: 415/558-0344 |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion