MPEG-2 Encoder Chips Seek Mass Market Apps

Development of products such as personal video recorders, personal computers and set-top boxes that allow users to simultaneously compress, store, playback and transport audio and video streams is expected to be accelerated substantially with the introduction of the iVAC family of MPEG-2 encoders. Incorporating audio, video and system encoding functions on a single chip, the iTVC10 is an MPEG-2 encoder streamlined for USB applications, whereas the iTVC12 is a versatile device that provides interoperability of broadcast and high-end consumer systems and Transport layer processing.The iVAC architecture combines highly flexible video and audio DSPs with optimized computational blocks for fixed functions. The devices also integrate on-chip popular system interfaces for PCI, USB and IEEE-1394 and uses the I²C bus to control external audio and video A/D converters. The iTVC-10 and -12 support 6 MB and 12 MB of external SDRAM, respectively. Support for the Windows environment is also provided. The 456-ball PBGAs require 2.5V and 3.3V supplies.