Mercury Computer Systems announced its collaboration with IPV to bring the massive compute power of the Cell Broadband Engine (BE) processor to the professional video market. The collaboration will initially focus on the development of software tools, libraries, and applications to support implementation of predictive block-based video codecs such as MPEG4 (H.264). A codec is a technology for compressing and decompressing data. H.264 is among the latest and most advanced digital video codec standard, providing a far more efficient algorithm for compressing video data, and at a rate three to four times higher than any other compression method available. "The expanding high-definition market requires more horsepower for real- time and faster than real-time video processing than traditional processors can readily support, and programmable solutions offer distinct advantages over custom hardware in terms of flexibility and product life," said David Cole, Chief Executive Officer of IPV Limited. "Mercury has substantial experience in harnessing the power of parallel processing such as the Cell BE and in integrating solutions with the technology best suited to address their customers' performance requirements. As IPV expands its product offering to include advanced codecs and increased metadata creation and processing, Mercury is the ideal development partner, with the right tools and support to enable customers to achieve rapid time to market." Mercury and IPV are exploring multiple product offerings for the professional video market based on Cell Technology, including system-level products and software libraries that accelerate application development with optimized performance of key kernel functions, and unique value-add from IPV to support content generation, repurposing and distribution. "We are pleased to be working with IPV to help solve some of the compute- intensive challenges currently facing the broadcast industry," said Mark Skalabrin, Vice President and General Manager of the Advanced Solutions business at Mercury. "The Cell BE processor, combined with Mercury's software and system engineering expertise, can provide some of the highest performance and most cost-effective solutions for the professional video market." Visit Mercury (Booth #C10246) and IPV (Booth # SU8609) at NAB2007, April 16-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. Or contact Mercury at (866) 627-6951.