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PEN
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TANDARDS
14
October 2013
firmware optimized for their DSP array. Ap-
plication developers can interact with these
boards via a simple object-oriented application
programmers interface (API). The transcoding
performance scales linearly according to the
number of DSPs that are fitted – options from
4 DSPs to 12 DSPs are available. But even with
4 DSPs and consuming less than 25W of
power, Emerson offers the PCIE-8120 card,
which delivers a voice transcoding performance
comparable to a typical server consuming
300W or more.
An example may help illustrate the value of
using acceleration. Consider a packet processing
application that, in a server based on dual
Intel Xeon processors, can support 4000 con-
current sessions or streams. The market now
demands to add voice transcoding capability.
As outlined already, one option is to use a
commercial host media processing solution.
This requires approximately 50% of a dual
Intel Xeon server capacity for 2000 transcode
streams. As a consequence, adding this capa-
bility reduces the available processing power
for the original application by 50%. The re-
sulting solution is now only a 2000 stream
processing device. To get back to the 4000
stream capacity, a customer must buy two
units, so power consumption and rack space
is doubled. The alternative is to add a PCI Ex-
press DSP accelerator board. This takes care
of the processing-intensive workload, thus
maintaining the original performance. In fact,
compared to a host media processing solution
that is limited to approximately 2000 sessions
per server, a single Emerson PCIE-8120 is ca-
pable of transcoding over 7500 bidirectional
voice streams or over 300 mobile video streams
in hardware, and multiple boards can be fitted
to a single server.
When considering the PCI Express accelerator
card route, design engineers should ensure
their shortlisted solutions support the following
3GPP, ITU-T, IETF and other voice codecs:
Uncompressed telephony: G.711 -law/A-law
with Appendices I and II, Narrowband com-
pression: G.729AB, G.729.1, G.723.1A, G.726,
G.727,Wideband compression: G.722, G.722.1,
Wireless network: GSM EFR, AMR and AMR-
Wideband; EVRC and EVRC-B, and Internet
voice: iLBC, SILK (Skype), Opus. In addition,
each voice channel should support echo can-
cellation, announcements, conferencing, mix-
ing, and a full range of tone detection and
relay functions.
HD (or other) video streams can be redirected
within an appliance to a PCI Express accelerator
card and transcoding and conferencing can
happen without making any use of existing
processing resource. For example, a single
Emerson PCIE-8120 can handle up to six 4-
party video conference bridges where each
participant uses H.264 720p at 30fps. It can
also handle resizing to and from 1080p. Design
engineers should ensure the solution they
choose supports the most common video com-
pression schemes used in communications,
such as H.263 (legacy) and MPEG-4 for CIF,
and H.264 at resolutions up to 1080, and is
easily upgradeable as newer compression
schemes emerge. Many rack-mount servers
are available in fully NEBS compliant, hardened
versions, so the accelerator card should be de-
signed for NEBS carrier grade and data center
environments, so offering a common solution
for both enterprise and telecom environments.
In fact, Emerson also offers the ATCA-8320
ATCA media processing blade - based on the
same technology - allowing OEMs to achieve
even higher scalability up to multi-bladed Ad-
vancedTCA systems while protecting software
investment.
High density voice and video processing is
increasingly in demand for applications such
as session border controllers, media
gateways/servers or media resource functions,
video or content optimization, video commu-
nications servers, and interactive voice and
video response systems. We can see that using
a PCI Express media processing accelerator
card, such as Emerson PCIE-8120, rather than
additional servers has a lot of benefits. It takes
up less space, it consumes much less power, it
can easily be retro-fitted to existing deployed
systems as a true feature addition, and it costs
less than a comparable server + commercial
host media processing combination for the
same performance. Consequently, it offers a
lower total cost of ownership and a much sim-
pler upgrade and deployment experience.
Product News
ADLINK: dual channel 3G-SDI
video/audio capture card
ADLINK announces the release of its first SDI
video/audio capture card, the PCIe-2602. Based
on the PCI Express x4 interface, unparalleled
features enable 2-channel acquisition of 3G-
SDI for low latency and uncompressed video
data signals up to 1920x1080p/60fps, providing
lossless full color 4:4:4 video and up to 12-bit
video data for critical applications such as
medical imaging, intelligent video surveillance
casting.
AMP introduces new custom video
solution
Advanced Micro Peripherals introduced a new
program called Rapid Synthesis Video Platform,
or simply RSVP. With AMP’s new RSVP pro-
gram, video systems developers gain a competi-
tive edge while cutting their time to market and
development costs. RSVP achieves this by making
AMP’s video technology available as a set of off-
software components.
IBASE: 3rd gen Intel Core processor-
based PICMG 1.3 CPU card
IBASE rolls out the IB965 PICMG 1.3 CPU
card supporting the Intel Q77 Express Chipset
and 3rd generation Intel Core processors. Sup-
porting high performance, manageability and
power efficiency, the IB965 is optimized for
demanding applications in the medical field,
industrial automation, transportation and
gaming sectors.
powerBridge: 4th gen Intel Core i7 VPX
board with up to 16 GB RAM and XMC site
powerBridge announced the CONCURRENT
Technologies 3U VPX board TR B12/msd
which provides a 4th Generation Intel Core
i7. The board has an up to 2.4 GHz Quad
Core CPU, up to 16 GB DDR3L-1600 ECC
RAM, up to three independent graphics inter-
faces, Gigabit Ethernet, PCIe, SATA 6Gbit/s,
USB and RS-232/422/485 ports. The TR
B12/msd is available with front I/O or XMC
site from powerBridge Computer.
DFI: Type 6 COM Express module with
HM86 Express chipset supports 3 display
outputs
DFI brings the 4thgeneration Intel Core processors
to the HM960-HM86, Type 6 COMExpress Basic
module, in its Mobile product line based on Intel
HM86Express chipset.In systemmemory,support
is provided for up to 2 16GB of DDR3L
1333/1600MHz low voltage memory interfaces for
faster communication between components. The
onboardmemory storage, an optional SSD device,
on of data storage.
Schroff: creating individual subracks or
cases through modification
For many customized solutions, modifications
are required. The Pentair route to an individual
subrack or case is through Schroff ServicePLUS.
This series of options includes a range of services
such as configuration, assembly, modification,
solutions, etc. For the design of individual sub-
racks and cases the modification and assembly
terest.
