Toshiba SpursEngine Add-In Video Cards Coming Soon
Toshiba SpursEngine, released earlier this year is based on the same Cell processor technology as used in the Sony PlayStation 3 console.
The SpursEngine is designed to process high-definition (HD) video with its four Cell-cores.
Toshiba’s first systems to include the SpursEngine are the Qosmio G50 and F40 notebooks, which were unveiled in June of this year. PC Add-in cards are slated to arrive soon, before the end of this year.
The SpursEngine is able to encode or decode HD video thanks to hardware based MPEG2 and H.264 codecs and can also upscale standard-definition video to high-definition on the fly without tying up the computers main processor. Card makers have hopes the SpursEngine will find its way to home PCs based on low-cost processors, such as the Intel Celeron – to offer high-end video capability.
LeadTek and Thomson both plan on introducing add-in SpursEngine based cards in the coming weeks. LeadTek’s card should arrive later this month, coming in at roughly US$286. Thomson’s cards should arrive by November and are expected to cost between US$375 and US$400. LeadTek recently showcased its card, the Winfast PxVC 1100 at the Ceatec Exhibition in Japan. The PCI Express card with 128MB XDR memory fits easily into a small form factor desktop and required only a very small heatsink to keep it cool.
A LeadTek representative manning the LeadTek booth claims the company hopes to use passive cooling for their cards versus a fan when they are released – this has yet to be finalized however.
So this would be used for hardware accelerating video transcoding and playback?
That sounds nice, but a graphics card can accelerate HD play back as well as play games for around the same price, and should eventually allow for acceleration of video encoding once the software is ready. So, is this really necessary?
However, imo the XDR memory requirement is absolutely crippling the cost effectiveness of these chip..
If the price would not be too high, a celeron, atom or via processor, integrated graphics (for lower power consumption) + toshiba's SE could make a great laptop for a certain market segment.
That would be way cool, but I seriously doubt it will ever be done.
And regarding comparisons with gpu, I guess this chip gets the job done with lower power requirements.
this could be interesting if it can be used in Folding or any application, but with a PS3, still pointless product. probably,there's excess manufacturing capability of cell chips.