Toshiba SpursEngine SE1000 HD Stream Processor

Toshiba announced its sample shipping of its SpursEngine SE1000 HD stream processor. The SpursEngine SE1000 HD comes with integrated codec to encode and decode Full HD video of MPEG-2 and H.264 streams. The SE1000 is in fact using technologies being implemented in Sony’s PS3, which deliver high quality video images.

PRESS RELEASE

Toshiba Starts Sample Shipping of SpursEngine(TM) SE1000 High-Performance Stream Processor

Offering Development Environment to Advance Stream Processing Applications
In the Full-HD Era

TOKYO, April 8, 2008 /PRNewswire/ — Toshiba Corporation today
announced the start of sample shipping of the SpursEngine(TM) SE1000
(SpursEngine), a high-performance stream processor integrating four
Synergistic Processing Element (SPE) cores derived from the “Cell Broadband
Engine(TM)” (Cell/B.E.(TM)). Sample shipping began today and Toshiba
expects sales of 6 million units within the first three years of the
SpursEngine’s release.

SpursEngine is a co-processor that integrates a hardware codec for full
HD encoding and decoding of MPEG-2 and H.264 streams with four SPEs derived
from Cell/B.E. These advanced processing elements offer high performance
media streaming capabilities, with a clock frequency of 1.5GHz, while
achieving a low power consumption range of 10W to 20W.

“We are very pleased to have started sample shipping of the
SpursEngine,” said Yoshio Masubuchi, Director of Toshiba’s System LSI
Division, Advanced SoC Development Center. “The design of this powerful
co-processor is dedicated to bringing the advanced capabilities of the
Cell/B.E. to consumer electronics, particularly video processing in digital
consumer products. We are sure that SpursEngine will accelerate the market
for full-HD applications.”

Toshiba will support developers working on SpursEngine applications
with a comprehensive reference kit that includes a reference board and
essential middleware APIs. The reference board has a PCI-Express edge
connector that can connect to an x1 layer slot in a PC. Toshiba will also
provide an integrated development environment (SPE compiler, SPE debugger
and performance monitor) and sample applications that demonstrate how to
use the provided middleware. With the reference kit, customers can quickly
and easily construct an evaluation and development environment and
accelerate product development.

Toshiba will further boost the performance and cut the power
consumption of the SpursEngine to support further innovation in products
offering new levels of functionality.

Co-operation between Toshiba and the SpursEngine(TM) SE1000
Partnerships

Toshiba is developing co-operative relationships with many partner
companies in order to develop wide scope video solutions that utilize the
SpursEngine. For example, Toshiba is partnering with Corel Corporation,
whose headquarters are in Canada, and Taiwan-based CyberLink Corporation
and Leadtek Research Inc. These companies produce popular video and image
processing software and hardware, such as graphic boards, and will together
supply to set manufacturers. By working together with these companies and
creating a new value chain, many end users can enjoy a comfortable digital
life by using partner boards and software bundled with the SpursEngine.

[PRNewsWire]