Equator Technologies Unveils Dolphin Design Platform
Equator, a broadband digital communications and media processing system provider, recently announced the Dolphin reference design platform.
Dolphin is intended to shorten the design cycle of enhanced-function media appliances by providing a total, customizable hardware/software platform for interactive TV appliances. The Dolphin platform is expected to expedite the design of personal video recorders and iTV set-top boxes.
Samsung has already chosen Dolphin as its open platform solution. Samsung will incorporate Dolphin as the foundation for its new interactive SMT F300 set-top box.
Dolphin is the industry’s first reference design platform to include an
interactive chip with a complete set of features and functions,
providing the necessary tools to help manufacturers create advanced media
appliances that deliver services such as time-shifting, electronic
program
guide, streaming media over the Internet, and Web browsing.
As developers utilize Dolphin to create
affordable media appliances, experts expect that a broader consumer audience than
ever before will have access to movies-on-demand, streaming broadcasts of live
or pre-recorded events and other advanced services.
Dolphin Key Features:
The Dolphin platform provides advanced features and functions, which will be critical for future multi-function media appliances, including:
Hardware support – S-video and composite video input/output, S/PDIF audio input, analog stereo output, USB, IR, 10/100 Base-T, SDRAM and flash memories, tuners, and IDE hard disk
Complete Software Programmability – enabling upgrades of products already in the field to keep pace with evolving technology and industry demands.
Robust Security – through on-chip security processors, triple-DES encryption, and per-view authentication
Simultaneous encode/decode for DVR/PVR – Simultaneously 2 encode and 1 decode, allowing time-shift while recording
Support for a variety of codecs – MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and H.263, as well as proprietary codecs – providing the flexibility needed to develop a variety of broadband applications
RTOS Support – enabling embedded developers of all experience levels to create broadband media-oriented applications
Availability
The Dolphin reference design platform is available through the Early Access Program and will be widely available October, 2001.