Pegasos 8641D (CANCELED) Project
Broadcast Multiview Vector Graphics Enginein category Applications & Software
proposed by likewise on 10th November 2006
Project Proposal
BriefGraphics overlay subsystem and thumbnail stream subsystem for multiview systems used in the broadcast environment.
Project Summary
Create a HDTV full frame-rate 2D vector graphics engine for broadcast multiview systems. Create a RTP/RTSP JPEG thumbnail stream of source video feeds to the remote control application.
Introduction to Vector Graphics
Vector graphics rendered fonts, widgets, icons and windows are rapidly becoming worthwhile because of todays high resolution screens, but mostly because the content is resolution independent and can be displayed on whatever size on whatever screen in its best representation.
For television broadcast graphics rendering, with the transition to HDTV, there is similar interest in this vector graphics technology.
Introduction to Multiview Systems
So called multiview systems in the broadcast chain are used to monitor multiple video feeds in differently sized windows, with all the metadata (time clocks, audio levels, source link name, ...) surrounding the windows, all on one or more big screens.
As a first task, all metadata presentation is generated in real-time from vector graphics to the target size and target display.
As a second task, the incoming video feeds need to be efficiently thumbnailed for remote monitoring over Gigabit Ethernet. The remote client application where the multiview is configured is one of the receivers of the live thumbnails.
Project
I would like to use existing vector rendering engine technology (cairographics.org, antigrain.com) and optimize this for the PowerPC platform, then measuring bottlenecks for subsequent optimization in Altivec units and/or offloading to hardware acceleration in custom logic (VHDL, FPGA) connected to the PowerPC bus.
Also, video thumbnails need to be DMA\'d from the PowerPC bus and subsequently encoded for live streaming using RTP/RTSP over IP/Gigabit Ethernet for remote control and monitor applications.
Project Performance Targets
In contrast with what is achievable on low-to-medium performance embedded chips, the dual-core MPC8641D must be able to achieve real-time full frame-rate HDTV vector graphics animations (such as those in SWG or SVG formats) for at least 25% of the screen real estate, concurrently with the generation of thumbnails (on best effort basis).
The combination of tasks and both CPU and I/O boundedness should match the MPC8641D capabilities.
Other Applications
Other applications are live support graphics, generated on demand and in real-time, such as stock market tickets scroll bars to animated program guides.
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