Helix Community

Helix Community has some open source projects related to real audio and real video encoding / playback.

Video/Imaging DesignLine | Fabless start-up companies face myriad operational challenges

This nice article talks about the increasing challanges of fabless start-up companies. One notable quote: "the chip company is becoming the R&D and the technical implementer, while the traditional systems companies are becoming branding and marketing companies. See Video/Imaging DesignLine | Fabless start-up companies face myriad operational challenges

Mobile Handset DesignLine | Mobile TV may outpace 3-D offerings in handsets

According to Mobile Handset DesignLine (probably coming from an interview with ATI), mobile TV will be adopted sooner than 3D graphics on cell phones. See Mobile Handset DesignLine | Mobile TV may outpace 3-D offerings in handsets

Mobile Handset DesignLine | Find out what's really inside the iPod

This article at Handset Designline detailed the history of multimedia processors used by iPod. See Mobile Handset DesignLine | Find out what's really inside the iPod.

EETimes.com - Mobile digital TV alliance formed

Nokia, Motorola, Intel and TI have decided to form an alliance called Mobile DTV Alliance to promote DVB-H in the U.S. Don't know if this will result in accelerated adoption of DVB-H. See EETimes.com - Mobile digital TV alliance formed.

Digital TV Designline | Broadcom's BCM7411D audio/video decoder chip complies with latest optical disc formats like Blu-ray and HD DVD.

Broadcom is becoming a force in the multimedia chipset business. See their most recent product announcement: Digital TV Designline | Broadcom's BCM7411D audio/video decoder chip complies with latest optical disc formats like Blu-ray and HD DVD.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: SED (page 1: The three kinds: Plasma, LCD and SED) - BeHardware

This article, Close Encounters of the Third Kind: SED (page 1: The three kinds: Plasma, LCD and SED) - BeHardware, gave a really brief overview of SED and then showed some comparison results between Plasma, LCD and SED. The results are skewed by the images captured using a digital camera with ISO400 and 1-sec exposure time. Still the spec of SED looks quite impressive.

Columns by PC Magazine: Cell Phone Nav: The Next Big Thing

Columns by PC Magazine: Cell Phone Nav: The Next Big Thing

Digital Television, Part 1: Making Sense of it all - Engadget

Engadget has this great article on digital TV standards. Very informative. See Digital Television, Part 1: Making Sense of it all - Engadget.

SigmaTel: Investors: Press Releases

Somehow I missed this before CES: SigmaTel Press Releases on Jan. 3, 2006 talks about their STMP3600 chip. Notable features include:

• ARM926EJ-S


• Integrated 256KB RAM


• Built-in audio ADC and DAC


• USB 2.0 OTG


• MPEG4 & H.264 video playback using software (ARM running at 200MHz)

Other misc features include SDIO, LCD, UART, I2C mater/slave, etc. It's offered in 169 BGA and 100 TQFP.

Windows Media Licensing Program

Windows Media Licensing Program contains information related to licensing Windows Media technologies. Specifically, we need to acquire licenses in order to port windows media components and DRM to our chips.