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LONDON - The VideoCore chip, a 16-engine application-specific processor able to deliver audio and video data stream processing, including MPEG-4, is in the driver's seat at startup Alphamosaic Ltd. The chip, which claims unprecedented computational efficiency, is intended for use in portable equipment and mobile phones that could offer security video of remote sites, send video postcards or support mobile videoconferencing.
Alphamosaic, which began life a few weeks ago as a spin-off from Cambridge Consultants Ltd. (Cambridge, England), said the device offers the flexibility of a programmable solution, and yet can rival the power consumption of a hardwired, standard-specific engine such as an MPEG-4 decoder. "We've taken a RISC philosophy and crossed it with a parallel-processing approach," said Robert Swann, cofounder and marketing director of Alphamosaic.
Each ofthe VideoCore's 16 engines "is a fully operational 32-- bit processor, but they are optimized to do the kind of math that lies behind...