One of my friends is the software manager for our Set-Top group, so I thought I'd do a little horn-tooting and link out to some info some of you guys might find rather cool.

The first release of our Xilleon is pretty capable and (can be) a real linux-powered workhorse.

http://www.ati.com/na/pages/technology/hardware/set_top_box/xilleon220_brochure.html

If anyone is interested in designing the next portable super-player (or Replay/Tivo type device), this chip could make a great core. It's overkill for many applications, but the cool-factor is incredible.

Additional info can be found in the set-top-specific link (we have a reference design as well as SW/HW SDK available)

Anyway, yes I work for the company, but I'm just posting here because I think the technology is cool and I think this is the right crowd to appreciate it.

Processor
XILLEON™ 220 integrates a high-speed 300 MHz MIPS® RISC Architecture CPU with integrated caches and a memory management unit (MMU). The CPU delivers 390 Dhrystone MIPS. The MMU allows the chip to support most embedded operating systems, including Linux, Windows® CE, and VxWorks.

The chip is capable of running in either “solo” or “peer” modes. In solo mode, the built-in MIPS® CPU runs the target operating system and XILLEON™ 220 is the PCI bus master. In peer mode, an external CPU runs the operating system and XILLEON™ 220 operates as a slave device.

Digital Video
XILLEON™ 220 has been designed from the ground-up to support the processing and time shifting of multiple video streams from multiple tuners. It integrates a powerful microcontroller that is used to manage the demultiplexor and has the flexibility to adapt to all worldwide video packet formats including DVB, ATSC, DSS/DIRECTV®, BSDigital and DVD.

The field-proven MPEG-2 decoder is capable of decoding up to two high-definition video streams, or up to eight standard-definition video streams. The decoder operates independently from the MIPS® CPU and requires no host CPU support. It can use adaptive compression to decode high-definition video in a reduced memory space. In addition to decoding all worldwide broadcast formats, the MPEG-2 decoder is capable of decoding DVD streams and supporting “trick modes” like pause and fast-forward.

Display Engine
XILLEON™ 220 contains a powerful and flexible display engine. Two separate display paths drive two display devices, with different content on each display. For example, the chip can display to a TV and VCR, or to two separate TVs.

Multiple video scalers allow picture-in-picture capability – up to four standard-definition or two high-definition video windows can be individually scaled and displayed on the primary TV output. Scaled graphics can also be alpha-blended on top of video.

XILLEON™ 220 integrates two separate video encoders that support worldwide video standards. Each encoder supports all regional formats including PAL, NTSC and SECAM and all interface formats including composite, S-video, RGB, Component and SCART. A copy-protected DVI interface is also available for connecting to big screen TVs and LCD displays.

Other advanced display features include flicker removal, spatial-temporal adaptive deinterlacing, line doubling, studio quality text, and professional quality video scaling for video-in-a-window applications

2D/3D Graphics
XILLEON™ 220 integrates a fast and feature rich 2D / 3D graphics engine from ATI, a leader in 3D graphics. The hardware 3D engine provides performance not achievable with CPU-based software solutions and can be used for gaming, e-commerce, fades/wipes, and enhanced electronic program guides (EPGs). Unlike other embedded 3D engines, it is compatible with all 3D application programming interfaces (APIs) including Direct3D™, OpenGL®, and BroadcastCL.

Memory
XILLEON™ 220 has an advanced memory. Up to 3 Gigabytes/second of memory bandwidth is available, three or more times the bandwidth of many competing solutions. The high memory bandwidth enables flawless decode of multiple MPEG streams in conjunction with graphics, CPU, and I/O operations.

I/O
XILLEON™ 220 integrates all the I/O ports necessary to build an advanced set-top box, including PCI, USB, EIDE, IR, serial, I2C, I2S, AC-97, LPC, Flexbus, and multiple general-purpose I/Os.



Bruno

Sounds awesome!

However, Nvidia might take objection to 'ATI, the leader in 3D graphics'...

But I'm sure it's still powerful.

Have fun,

Paul

NV has the fastest Quake numbers. I don't consider that leading in technology. Neither do 3D professionals.

Bruno

Wasn't that "...a leader in ..." in the original?

Isn't quake the biggest market for 3d chips? ATI seem to think it's a pretty important market.

Every 3d machine in this company runs an NVidia card. On a windows box, NVidia cards kick ass over every other card i've seen in Maya. We are a gaming company... so there is that... I should find out what kind of cards the ILM guys are running. They are all on linux boxes these days, and are phasing out the SGI's.

The GeForce4 specs have be shaking in my boots. I'm going to put my GeForce2 up for sale as soon as it comes out. Does ATI have anything better? It's been awfully quiet. At one point I had both an ATI and an NVidia in my machine simultaneously. I'm about to sell the ATI (tonight, on ebay) and am looking at my next generation card.

Calvin

The NVIDIA cards kick ass on linux too. So long as you are running an x86 box that is.

How do their current top Quadros compare to the FireGL4? Not the FireGL Radeon 8800. The IBM-powered GL4.

But... The point of this thread was the XILLION220. NV has nothing like it, so we can drop them from the thread.

Bruno

The gamer's know --- NVidia is the best. We took out all except 2 of our ATIs and put in NVidias. No buggy drivers, etc. The 2 that are left are wanting to upgrade.

See PCMag
See Tom's Hardware

I could go on and tell you what Tom is. I'll leave it with a few simple words. If he knew 1/100th about graphics chips and computer technology as he does about dentistry, he might be worth a read. Fluff and garbage. Payola.

But anyway, that's just me. I'm obviously biased. But I've also been in this industry for longer than Tom has known what about the "web"

Bruno

NVidia is still a sweet card and it's what gamers want.
What wrong with Tom? Seems like a nice site. Is PCMag OK?

The gamer's know --- NVidia is the best.

Currently the best for Quake, you mean.

These things can change on a dime. Remember a little doohickey called the Voodoo card? I remember when Nvidia's offering couldn't hold a candle to it.

I don't think things changed on a dime.

NVidia spent years, decades even getting to where they are? Remember the NV1 with its proprietary rendering model?

The slow progression from "nothing compared to a voodoo" to "not as good as the vodoo but competitive for those on a budget" to "voodoo killer" wasn't overnight.

NVidia - currently the best for watching DVDs via TVOut on Linux

Hrm ... looks to me like none of this is on topic of the Xilleon ... Good post Bruno ... keep us updated on current applications, I'd love to see it in action.

On a side note, there is quite a difference between general 3D rendering power in a video card and 3D gaming ability. Most guys here have been talking about 3D gaming ability in cards, hence the Voodoo, NVidia, ATI. I would like to make sure and clarify that all 3D cards are not alike.

For all those who have dropped $3000 or more on a single 3D card please raise your hand ....

Proof enough that each card has a different purpose in life.

Greg

For all those who have dropped $3000 or more on a single 3D card please raise your hand ....

Why would you need to do that when NVidia cards can render Final Fantasy in real time?

For all those who have dropped $3000 or more on a single 3D card please raise your hand ....

Umm.. well Patrick, Hugo and I had a little company called Creative Realities which (after moving on from Laser Tag) designed a full motion simulator. This was a while before high performance PC graphics chipsets were available, so we made the highly dubious decision of blowing 25 grand on a massively parallel 3D graphics engine consisting of two huge MCA cards. The cards had sixteen "processor SIMMS" each containing eight chips with 64 4-bit processors on each chip - giving a total of 8192 processors. The scene was split up between the processors.

At the time the system was phenominal, but unfortunately you could get pretty similar results out of a $200 consumer product before our project was finished. Actually, the last I heard that project still isn't finished

Rob

On a dime is right. I felt a little sad when S3 was forced out of the marketplace... As well as Diamond... But if it wasn't for those facts, who knows is there would have been a Rio brand. And if not, what would have developed with empeg Ltd. seeking other avenues. Damn, we need a Connections episode on this.

I'm sure when traced back however, it will all rest on what was the outcome of the C=64.

Bruno

Our Xillion Set-Top SDK (HW/SW) isn't cheap (for a consumer anyway) but there has been a very good amount of interest in it. Can't say who's looking and working of course.

I'll update with any public news. If anyone has any questions that I can pass by any of the SW engineers, I'd be cool with answering them in here.

Bruno