Equator Technologies, which provides programmable system-on-a-chip processors, has announced its new Sailfish set-top box hardware platform, which includes video phone support.
The joint reference design couples an Alchemy processor from AMD with an Equator single chip system, with support for MPEG-4 AVC and VC-1 video compression. The reference design also includes support for network router and voice-over-IP facilities, with the ability to support video phone capabilities using standard compression schemes.
“We’re taking best-of-breed, pixel-perfect video and multimedia processing to the next level with additional network integrated services,” said John O’Donnell, co-founder and chief technology officer of Equator. His company is founded on the premise that dedicated processors will be replaced by programmable designs able to support multiple compression technologies.
With operators aiming to introduce triple-play voice, video and data services, we can expect to see a new generation of set-top boxes that combine VOIP, IPTV and broadband gateway services in a single box, with the option to add video telephony to the mix.