SE1000
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Toshiba's SpursEngine chip dominates in transcoding demonstration
Toshiba has let us know just how incredible its SpursEngine SE1000 chip really is, but all that talk has never amounted to much -- until now. Packed away in a dusty corner of Computex 2008 was Corel's demonstration booth, which just so happened to have a few rigs set up with a Cell-optimized version of its DVD MovieFactory application. One station utilized the SE1000, while the other relied solely on a 3GHz Intel Core 2 Quad CPU to transcode 1080p H.264 video to 480p. According to onlookers, the SpursEngine-based machine completed the task nearly twice as fast as the hamstrung opponent, proving that maybe Toshiba does have something worth waiting for on that PCI-Express card. Too bad there's still no mention of a price.
Toshiba releases SpursEngine graphics co-processor for testing
Toshiba just pushed its SpursEngine co-processor chip out the door for sampling. Derived from the Cell processor at the heart of Sony's PS3, the SpursEngine SE1000 contains 4 processor cores (not 8 like the Cell) and a hardware codec for encoding and decoding MPEG-2/H.264 video. It's designed to manhandle real-time graphics processing and video manipulation when used in a potent three-way with your computer's CPU and GPU. The processor is expected to cost as little as $50 by the time it appears in the first consumer electronics devices -- likely graphics cards -- early next year. A very good thing if the production experience is anything like the demonstrations we've seen.[Via Impress]
