HIGHLIGHTS OF MPACT MEDIA ENGINE FEATURES
Bringing State-of-the-Art Multimedia Functionality to the Mainstream
MPEG video. Digital video disk. 3-D graphics. Dolby Surround AC-3 audio. 3-D sound. Waveguide synthesis. Digital simultaneous voice and data. Videoconferencing. These are the cutting-edge multimedia technologies PC manufacturers are racing to bring to market. While products addressing many of these technologies, either individually or in combination, are starting to appear, these solutions are generally very costly and surely not practical for equipping the next generation of consumer multimedia PCs.
The Chromatic Research Mpact media engine changes all that. For the first time, manufacturers of consumer multimedia PCs will be able to deliver state-of-the-art capabilities at mass market prices. The Mpact media engine would make a viable low-cost solution for any of these multimedia functions individually. But the fact that the Mpact media engine provides all these functions and more highlights its significance and truly sets it apart form anything else on the market.
Describing all the multimedia functions performed by the Mpact media engine could easily fill a small book. Listed below is just a sampling of some of the more groundbreaking features that could help reshape the consumer multimedia PC market.
MPEG-1 Real-Time Encoding and Decoding, MPEG-2 Decoding
What it is: MPEG is the dominant standard in the entertainment and broadcast industries for motion-video and audio compression. Available in two "flavors," MPEG encoding enables the huge volume of data required by motion video and high-fidelity audio to be transmitted over a local-area network or stored on a CD-ROM or digital video disk (DVD), among other uses. Decoding then restores the transmitted or stored MPEG data for viewing on a PC or television. MPEG-1 provides VHS-quality video with CD quality audio, while MPEG-2 provides HDTV or Laserdisk-quality video and multi-channel, movie theater quality audio.Why it's important: MPEG decoding on the desktop is quickly becoming a critical need in entertainment, educational and business computing use as more software developers incorporate MPEG-encoded video and audio sequences, and as MPEG-encoded movies become available either on disk or through broadcast and land-line sources.
The Mpact media engine provides both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video, audio and system decoding for playback of just about any compressed motion video content. Together with its ability to decode Dolby AC-3, for example, an Mpact-equipped PC can be used to play digital video disks, either on the PC or on an attached television.
The Mpact media engine also offers the only truly low-cost real-time MPEG-1 video, audio and system encoding. Producing Windows-standard AVI editable-MPEG format, the Mpact media engine opens the door to a new world of motion video content development. With the use of emerging low-cost recordable CD-ROM drives, the Mpact media engine's real-time MPEG-1 encoding will make it possible for almost anyone -- from hobbyists to corporations -- to create and publish their own commercial, educational or entertainment multimedia materials.
What's available now: No MPEG-2 playback support, either hardware or software, is currently available for PCs. Software MPEG-1 decoding, while attractive from a price standpoint, requires significant tradeoffs in picture size, frame rate, and number of colors, and some do not decode audio. Hardware MPEG-1 playback support for PCs is just starting to hit the market, often combined with 2-D graphics acceleration capabilities, but these cards generally cost several hundred dollars. The lowest cost real-time MPEG-1 recording system available today, the Sigma Designs RealMagic Producer, costs $4000.
3-D Graphics Acceleration
What it is: Unlike simply displaying a stored 3-D image, 3-D graphics acceleration enables three-dimensional objects to be manipulated -- rotated, changed in shape, etc. -- in real time, making it useful not only in entertainment and engineering applications, but in scientific and medical visualization applications, too.Why it's important: The Mpact media engine makes cutting-edge 3-D graphics affordable enough to be put on the motherboard of every computer. The ramifications of having this much display power on every desktop are enormous. Widespread availability of 3-D graphics acceleration will spawn exciting new applications, including super-realistic games, simulations and perhaps even graphical user interfaces.
Creating and displaying realistic three-dimensional objects on a computer screen, with natural-looking surface textures and shading, has long been the sole domain of high-end engineering workstations because of the huge amount of computing power it requires. The Mpact media engine takes advantage of the formidable floating-point performance of the Pentium processor while handling pixel-level operations itself, performing 3-D graphics rendering with Gouraud shading, Z-buffering, texture mapping, lighting and anti-aliasing through Microsoft Windows 95 3-D APIs, including 3D DDI and Direct3D.
Because the Mpact media engine uses the same memory to store both 3-D graphics and video for display, it becomes possible to mix the two in new ways, including the placement of motion video onto any arbitrary 3-D surface. Now, a new genre of highly realistic, interactive games like Doom and Myst, for example, can be created using MPEG-encoded video clips of people, demons and other characters together with fully interactive 3-D rendered backgrounds.
What's available now: 3-D graphics accelerators costing $400 or more and combining graphics and video capabilities only are starting to appear from companies like Creative Labs and others.
Dolby Surround AC-3
What it is: The dominant technology today delivering high-quality digital "surround sound" audio for the movie industry, Dolby AC-3 is now poised to become the next audio standard for all multimedia. Providing brilliant sound quality, Dolby AC-3 squeezes five discrete full-range digital audio channels into less space than the two stereo channels on today's CDs, and will succeed Dolby's Surround Pro Logic technology for consumer home theater applications. First designated as the standard audio encoding method for HDTV, today Dolby AC-3 is the audio standard for the recently announced digital video disk (DVD) formats from Sony and Toshiba/Time Warner, and is being employed by direct broadcast satellite systems such as DMX for Business and PrimeStar and by emerging digital cable TV systems.Why it's important: Dolby AC-3 is quickly become the audio standard for high-quality MPEG-2-encoded video. Any application using MPEG-2 encoded video streams will also need Dolby AC-3 decoding to realize the full sound experience of the original source. By adding a $100 DVD disk drive to a low-cost Mpact-equipped consumer PC, for example, users will be able to play DVD movies with theater-quality digital surround sound. By comparison, first generation consumer DVD players are expected to cost in the neighborhood of $800. The attraction of greatly enhanced PC sound will also create a new market for PC-based, multi-channel audio systems with full-range speakers.
What's available today: Chromatic Research is the first company to license Dolby AC-3 and bring it to the PC market. For more information on Dolby AC-3, visit the Dolby Laboratories World-Wide Web site at http://www.dolby.com.
3-D Sound
What it is: More accurately defined as spatial audio or interactive audio, 3-D sound "opens up" the traditional stereo experience by fooling the ear into thinking sounds are coming from beyond the points where the two speakers are located. Sounds may appear to come from the listener's left or right side, or even above or below them, or any point in between.Why it's important: The widespread availability of 3-D sound-capable consumer PCs will spur the development of games, educational multimedia titles and other applications with greatly enhanced audio capabilities. Players of Doom, for example, will be able to hear a demon breathing and shooting above them, or track the flight of an enemy craft as it moves through space. 3-D sound is supported in Microsoft Windows 95 through the 3-D Sound API in DirectSound, and will also find application in other areas such as videoconferencing to enhance the user's ability to connect the placement of the sound with the image.
What's available now: 3-D sound cards are just starting to appear on the market, and leading game developers such as Id Software (Doom), Electronic Arts and Virgin Interactive are starting to use 3-D sound in their new releases.
Waveguide Audio Synthesis
What it is: Developed at the same Stanford University research laboratory as wavetable synthesis, waveguide synthesis delivers much more realistic musical sounds that capture all the richness and subtle nuances an instrument is capable of producing. Waveguide synthesis uses physical modeling of an actual instrument -- a simulation of sorts -- that can be dynamically manipulated in real time just like a musician would a real instrument. With a piano, for example, waveguide synthesis models how the hammers strike the strings, the influence of the wooden sound board and enclosure, and the dynamics of the strings, including the individual stiffness and thickness of each string. Wavetable synthesis, on the other hand, uses a static digital recording of an instrument to produce sounds that have very limited variability.Why it's important: With a high-quality sound system, a listener would be hard pressed to distinguish between a waveguide synthesized instrument and a real one. The Mpact media engine brings this technology to consumer PCs for a fraction of the cost of today's popular sound cards, enabling development of a new generation of sound sophistication. Chromatic expects waveguide synthesis to begin finding its way into the game and multimedia markets as developers learn to master the greatly enhanced capabilities of this technology.
What's available now: Commercial waveguide synthesizers such as Yamaha's waveguide synthesizer are available today, but can cost upwards of $10,000.
True Multitasking Business Audio
What it is: Business audio, wave-out device or .wav file player. These all refer to the PC's ability to produce various sounds in connection with particular application events such as an error condition or completion of a task. These sounds may range from simple beeps and whistles to wild sound effects, music or voice. Until now, however, only one sound could be played at a time due to the limits of today's sound cards, creating the possibility of missing some important sounds.Why it's important: With the advent of true multitasking operating systems like Windows 95, a single channel of business audio is no longer sufficient to handle all the events that may occur at the same time. This is important to game designers and multimedia content developers, too, who are starting to write object-oriented software with objects representing each sound. Until now, these developers have had to carefully consider how they use the single sound channel available in most PCs.
Having an Mpact-enabled PC can produce up to 35 business audio sounds simultaneously for business applications, games or multimedia, eliminating wave-out device contention and cut-off or missed sounds. To achieve this capability today would require a PC to have 35 SoundBlaster-compatible boards installed, impractical due to the cost and impossible due to the number of peripheral slots required. With the Mpact media engine, PC users won't miss important event sounds, and games and multimedia applications will be able to provide a much richer experience by being able to play many sounds at the same time.
What's available now: Several software-only solutions are being considered for Pentium-class PCs, but these offer only a very limited number of additional simultaneous sounds.
Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data
What it is: DSVD is an emerging international standard that enables two computer users to talk and exchange information at the same time over a single analog phone line. Because the standard is digital, the type of information that can be exchanged is unlimited, and can include photos, graphics, sounds, spreadsheets, faxes and even other voice channels.Why it's important: DSVD opens the door to new classes of applications that allow greater interaction over a single phone line. With DSVD, for example, two people can use a single phone line to exchange faxes or view a common "whiteboard" while also talking to each other, eliminating the need for a second phone line. Technical support staff can view their client's computer screen while talking them through a complex procedure. Online shopping can include a direct voice connection to customer service.
What's available now: Some standalone V.34 and V.34bis modems supporting DSVD are available now, but cost anywhere from $150 to $250 and up. But because V.34bis and DSVD are both emerging standards, they will likely require modem manufacturers to upgrade their modems over time. Because the Mpact media engine gains all its functionality from software mediaware modules, it will always adhere to the most up-to-date standards, enhancing interoperability.
Analog and Digital Videophone
What it is: H.324 and H.320 are the emerging international standards for videophone over analog (POTS) and digital (ISDN) phone lines. Both H.324 and H.320 employ video and audio compression and decompression techniques to enable videophone and videoconferencing applications, but H.324 is gathering the most attention today because it operates over the type of phone lines everyone already has.Why it's important: The widespread availability of standardized videophone hardware made possible by the Mpact media engine, combined with the development of standard operating system APIs to enable applications to access these functions, could reshape the way people do business, eliminating much unnecessary travel. Because the Mpact solution is very low cost, it also opens the door to a new class of home computer applications.
What's available today: Several systems employing both standards are becoming available, but these generally cost several hundred dollars.
Telephony
What it is: Consumer PCs today are beginning to provide basic telephony applications such as answering machine, speakerphone and voice mail. The convergence of computer and telephone technologies got a shot in the arm recently with the emergence of Microsoft's TAPI and TSPI specifications, giving software developers a standardized way to let their applications access telephony hardware functions.Why it's important: The PC is increasingly being used as a personal communicator. In addition to computer networks, telephone networks are an important link to the outside world. With the Mpact media engine, more sophisticated applications, such as call attendants, automatic voice response systems and telemarketing systems are within the reach of the home office market.
The Mpact media engine provides a massive cost reduction over current telephony solutions. Instead of requiring three or four expensive chips, one Mpact media engine provides all telephony functions (in addition to all the other audio, video and graphics functions), including DTMF (touch-tone) decoding, caller ID, speakerphone with adaptive echo cancellation, answering machine, voice mail and more.
What's available today: Several computers from Packard-Bell and others now include very basic telephony capabilities, and several specialized add-in cards costing several hundred collars are available.