Low-Power CPU Drives Next-Generation Portable Video

The Alchemy Au1200 processor gives system designers a low-power, high-performance system-on-a-chip that provides living-room quality video entertainment for on-the-go consumers. Optimized for personal media players, Advanced Micro Devices' A

Dave Bursky

Feb. 3, 2005

The Alchemy Au1200 processor gives system designers a low-power, high-performance system-on-a-chip that provides living-room quality video entertainment for on-the-go consumers.

Optimized for personal media players, Advanced Micro Devices' Au1200 enables a new generation of conveniences and features. These include scalable DVD-quality displays, effortless video content transfers directly from digital video recorders, and long-lasting battery life so consumers can stay mobile.

The processor's media acceleration hardware supports MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV9, and H.263 formats. Media player software implements the user interface, playback control, and data-transfer control. This includes direct links to the TiVo digital video recorder (DVR) to implement TiVo-To-Go transfers of video files from the DVR hard drive to a portable player.

Power consumption is less than 400 mW at 400 MHz. The processor delivers DVD-quality video with a resolution of up to 720 by 480 pixels. Its output can be scaled to larger displays (1024 by 768).

Pricing for the 333-MHz Au1200 starts at $22.50 each in 10,000-unit quantities.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.www.amd.com/au1200

About the Author

Dave Bursky

Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.