Advantech and Ittiam to Cooperate in HD Audio Transcoding Initiative on Multicore DSP

Audio codecs optimized for PCIe cards based on TI’s TMS320C6678 multicore DSPs enable higher channel densities in a fast-to-deploy, cost-effective form factor.

NAB SHOW, Las Vegas – 17, 2012 - Advantech (TWSE: 2395.TW), a leading designer and manufacturer of multicore media processing platforms, and Ittiam Systems Private Limited, headquartered in Bangalore, India, a technology company singularly focused on embedded media-centric systems, announced the availability of a new high-density audio transcoding platform on Advantech’s DSPC-8681 card based on four TMS320C6678 multicore DSPs from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI). This platform sets new levels of performance in channel density and transcoding throughput in a half-length PCIe form factor.

"The combination of Ittiam's production-proven audio processing codecs optimized for TI's C6678 multicore DSPs and Advantech's PCIe cards results in a highly scalable solution for OEMs,"said David Lin, Director DSP Solutions, Advantech."The availability of such a high-performance audio processing platform in an industry-standard form factor will help our customers accelerate integration and development times much faster than before."

Advantech's DSPC-8681 is capable of transcoding multiple channels of audio and video, and it provides the hardware foundation for a wide variety of media codecs.

"The DSPC-8681 represents a powerful platform that enables high-quality and very high-channel transcoding for infrastructure needs," said Rohit Bhuva, Ittiam Vice President, Business Development, Americas. "Using Advantech's platform allows us to deliver Ittiam's Broadcast Solutions to customers as a complete package with a shorter time to market."

Ittiam's software systems for broadcast applications are available for licensing as software development kits (SDKs) with defined application programming interfaces (APIs) on TI's C667x multicore DSPs. The SDKs include a multimedia framework, middleware and codecs. The codecs include both highly optimized video and audio codecs for various formats and other video and audio processing algorithms. Running on Advantech’s DSPC-8681, Ittiam's audio SDK can transcode 400+ channels of MPEG-1 Layer II to AAC.

Advantech's DSPC-8681 Media Engine integrates four of TI's C6678 multicore DSPs, the PLX® ExpressLane™ PEX8624 PCIe Gen 2 switch, and the Xilinx XC3S200AN Spartan-3 FPGA to achieve the highest possible performance levels in a half-length PCIe form factor. High-speed inter-DSP communications provide low latency interconnects for scalable real-time multi-processing and connect to the host through a high-bandwidth PCIe x8 gen 2 interface. Based on the same design as the quad DSP card, Advantech’s DSPC-8682 extends the form factor to full length PCIe to accommodate eight of TI's C6678 multicore DSPs, providing a significant leap forward in multicore density and processing performance.

Ittiam's software framework will run on both the DSPC-8681 and DSPC-8682, allowing OEMs to build scalable solutions for a wide range of channel densities. By deploying solutions based on advanced media processing hardware today, OEMs can leverage the benefits of an all-software approach to extend their product lifecycles through new software enhancements in the future.

Advantech will be exhibiting at the NAB SHOW, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada USA on April 16 – 19, 2012 on booth #SU11006.

About Advantech

Founded in 1983, Advantech delivers trustworthy industrial computing solutions that enable intelligent applications. Our operation is divided into two segments: Branded & Solution Business and Embedded Design-In Business. We cooperate closely with solution partners to provide products and customized solutions in a wide array of applications. Advantech operates an extensive support, sales and marketing network in 22 countries and 64 major cities to deliver fast time-to-market services to our worldwide customers. (Corporate Website: www.advantech.com). Advantech's DSP portfolio includes ATCA, AdvancedMC™ and PCI Express products, enabling unprecedented levels in DSP core density, boosting voice call capacity and increasing video transcoding quality and throughput. Multimedia Processing Engines (MPE) in full- and half-length PCIe form factor offer impressive HD transcoding performance and are targeted at applications in digital media, as well as a variety of broader industry markets.

Website: http://www.advantech.com/products/DSP-Processing-Platforms/sub_DSP_Processing_Platforms.aspx.

About Ittiam Systems Private Limited

Ittiam Systems Private Limited, headquartered in Bangalore, India, is a technology product company singularly focused on digital signal processing systems in media and communication. The company operates through its network of offices and representatives around the world. Ittiam's customers include Fortune 100 companies and are distributed across U.S., Europe, Japan and Asia. Since 2004 the company has been consistently rated as the 'World's Most Preferred DSP IP Supplier' in the annual surveys conducted by Forward Concepts Incorporated. In 2005 Ittiam had been selected by Red Herring into the top 100 private companies in Asia. In February 2007, Ittiam received the NASSCOM India IT Innovation Award, a prestigious recognition.

For more details, visit www.ittiam.com.