Cheap, low megaherz Linux computer with embedded DSP

We are seeing lots of low-cost Linux laptops latetely, most of them with 
sub-Gigaherz processors. These are fine for simple tasks but not for 
watching video and audio/video streaming and editing. I was wondering if it 
would be possible to team up the CPU with a low-cost DSP by altering the 
Linux operating system and maybe even the applicatons in such a way that you 
can watch MPEG2 and MPEG4 video full screen and with a minimal usage of 
extra power. It is well known that Intel resisted the use of co-processor 
DSP's in the 90's, insisting that all audio and video processing had to be 
done by the CPU (and they did some arm wrestling to make sure). Now that 
vendors have a large amount of freedom with Linux, I wonder if this would be 
feasible or viable.

Any thoughts? 


** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

On Oct 15, 9:45 am, "Dale Harris" <dhar...@mailinator.com> wrote:
> We are seeing lots of low-cost Linux laptops latetely, most of them with
> sub-Gigaherz processors. These are fine for simple tasks but not for
> watching video and audio/video streaming and editing.

Not good for editing, but they are fine for watching most video with a
resolution appropriate to the screen size.    My (original mobile, not
Atom) EeePC chokes a bit on 1080p HD video, but then so does my
desktop.

> I was wondering if it
> would be possible to team up the CPU with a low-cost DSP by altering the
> Linux operating system and maybe even the applicatons in such a way that you
> can watch MPEG2 and MPEG4 video full screen and with a minimal usage of
> extra power.

Sure, you could build a hardware accelerator co-processor, but the
cost usually isn't going to be justified.  Most video shown on these
things is DVD quality or even youtube quality, and they handle that
fine (actually youtube often looks better on the little screen than on
a normal one).

What is on the market are embedded-linux-capable chips with DSP or
hardware video acceleration blocks - Blackfin, various TI offerings,
and maybe some of the digital camera/camcorder chips with ARM or MIPs
cores could be made to run linux with or without and MMU.  The issue
there may be that they will do fine on video, but may choke on
something more mundane such as open office (there is an ARM port, but
I don't know what kind of resources are needed for reasonable
performance).

<cs_posting@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:54956e39-d046-464a-8bf5-cd29f7e8c506@r38g2000prr.googlegroups.com...
> On Oct 15, 9:45 am, "Dale Harris" <dhar...@mailinator.com> wrote:
>> We are seeing lots of low-cost Linux laptops latetely, most of them with
>> sub-Gigaherz processors. These are fine for simple tasks but not for
>> watching video and audio/video streaming and editing.
>
> Not good for editing, but they are fine for watching most video with a
> resolution appropriate to the screen size.    My (original mobile, not
> Atom) EeePC chokes a bit on 1080p HD video, but then so does my
> desktop.

The original EEEPC had a 900Mhz processor which is more than capable of 
playing MPEG2 and MPEG4 video. Howerver, I'm thinking about ultra-low cost 
(< $100) laptops with 200 to 400Mhz Chinese MIPS processors which are not 
capable of decoding video. Add a $1 Chinese generic DSP and you can do 
full-screen video both decode and encode and maybe even on the fly editing, 
whilst consuming only a fraction of the power of a modern Intel CPU.

And another possible feature would be that you can program these DSP's on 
the fly and reuse it for other purposes, such as 3-D accelleration, 
especially shading and texturing.



** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Dale Harris wrote:

> The original EEEPC had a 900Mhz processor which is more than capable of 
> playing MPEG2 and MPEG4 video. Howerver, I'm thinking about ultra-low cost 
> (< $100) laptops with 200 to 400Mhz Chinese MIPS processors which are not 
> capable of decoding video. Add a $1 Chinese generic DSP and you can do 
> full-screen video both decode and encode and maybe even on the fly editing, 
> whilst consuming only a fraction of the power of a modern Intel CPU.

Got any links to $1 Chinese generic DSP's?

"Dale Harris" <dharris@mailinator.com> skrev i meddelandet 
news:baa1f$48f5f413$10634@news.teranews.com...
> We are seeing lots of low-cost Linux laptops latetely, most of them with 
> sub-Gigaherz processors. These are fine for simple tasks but not for 
> watching video and audio/video streaming and editing. I was wondering if 
> it would be possible to team up the CPU with a low-cost DSP by altering 
> the Linux operating system and maybe even the applicatons in such a way 
> that you can watch MPEG2 and MPEG4 video full screen and with a minimal 
> usage of extra power. It is well known that Intel resisted the use of 
> co-processor DSP's in the 90's, insisting that all audio and video 
> processing had to be done by the CPU (and they did some arm wrestling to 
> make sure). Now that vendors have a large amount of freedom with Linux, I 
> wonder if this would be feasible or viable.
>
> Any thoughts?

It is called a Dual-core or Quad-core CPU.

-- 
-- 
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
ulf@a-t-m-e-l.com
This message is intended to be my own personal view and it
may or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB