Re: [SLUG] cool media players

[Michael (Micksa) Slade]

Erik de Castro Lopo wrote: On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 11:19:47 +1000 Jamie Wilkinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: It runs embedded Linux on a StrongARM, but I suspect all the decoding is done in hardware on an MPEG decoder and one of those FPGA dudes programmed to do the OGG decoding. All FPGAs manufactured by Xilinx (about 70% of the market) and most of the other FPGAs as well store their programs in SRAM and hence have to be reprogrammed every time the device is power cycled. The upshot is that the firmware upgrades can only improve the interface, but not the codec support, I think. Hence that statement is probably wrong :-). Can we confirm that there is some FPGA  in there? anyone with a unit care to open it up (if you haven't already)? :) Look for a chip labelled "xilinx" or "altera". Regardless, I would guess that the decoding hardware in the ASIC(s) is designed to be flexible enough to be usable with newer technologies, provided they fit a certain profile.  For example, IIRC mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4 and theora are all based on DCTs and probably have a few other things in common, so these sub-processes would likely be doable in silicon, leaving the software with the less CPU-intensiive stuff, and putting it all together. This is assuming, of course, that the guys at Sigma know what they are doing. Erik, please feel free to enlighten me if I'm guessing wrong :) Mick.

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