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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
XILINX VIRTEX-II PRO FPGAs ENABLE PANDORA'S
NEWEST 3-D COLOUR CUBE
SAN JOSE, Calif., and Singapore, June 15, 2004 - At the
Broadcast Asia show today, Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX), the world
leader in programmable logic solutions and Pandora International, a
leader in digital film post production equipment headquartered in
London, announced a collaboration that resulted in Pandora's newest
3-D Colour Cube. Following it's debut at NAB Las Vegas in April,
REVOLUTION True , a 3-D colour cube capable of generating all
possible colour mappings for 14-bit RGB video, exploited the Xilinx
Virtex-II Pro FPGA architecture with on-board IBM PowerPC
processor, to significantly reduce system complexity and memory
footprint as compared to conventional colour cubes. REVOLUTION True
enables many types of equipment, including projectors and monitors,
to add sophisticated colour correction features at relatively
low-cost.
REVOLUTION True changes the economics of colour correction by
using the embedded IBM PowerPC processor of the Virtex-II Pro to
host a software interpolator capable of interpolating every
possible colour value using only a small amount of input data. It
is supported by custom logic also implemented in the Virtex-II Pro,
which creates a highly integrated solution. By comparison, a
standalone look-up table capable of storing every possible colour
value for 14-bit RGB values would require more than 23,000 GB of
memory. The new design based on Virtex-II Pro saves the costs
associated with such large quantities of memory, and allows
powerful colour correction features to be added to a wide variety
of professional video equipment.
The REVOLUTION True technology now makes it cost-effective to add
a single-board colour corrector to each projector throughout a
multiplex cinema network, to ensure consistent image quality on all
screens. REVOLUTION True will also be used in movie
post-production, where it allows colour correction work to
accurately represent the colour space of the target medium, usually
film. Adding REVOLUTION True in line with the monitor can bar
colours that cannot be reproduced accurately on film, presenting
the operator with a more accurate view of how the completed film
will appear.
Steve Brett, Technical Director at Pandora International,
explained that the size and cost of a traditional colour cube tool
restricted their use to very few applications in large video
editing facilities. "Even with current memory costs the scale of
the look-up tables necessary to implement a colour cube using
conventional techniques soon becomes impractical," he said. "By
exploiting the high degree of integration provided by Virtex-II
Pro, especially the embedded PowerPC processor capable of
implementing our unique software interpolation algorithms on-board
the FPGA, we can now offer the functionality of a colour cube
cost-effectively on a single board. This will open up many new
markets, for example where users need to compensate for the unique
colour space characteristics of different media such as video tape,
DVD or film."
About Xilinx Virtex-II Pro Platform FPGAs
Xilinx Virtex-II Pro Platform FPGAs offer the ideal connectivity
solutions, providing the high-speed programmable fabric and
system-level building blocks needed to successfully interface to
the latest generation of advanced memory devices. The Virtex-II Pro
device is the world's first and only FPGA to offer integrated IBM
PowerPC embedded technology and multi-gigabit transceivers at no
additional charge. With over 10,000 customer engagements, Virtex-II
Pro FPGAs are experiencing rapid adoption in a wide-range of
applications.
About Xilinx
Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic
solutions. For more information, visit www.xilinx.com.
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