Toshiba unveils "SpursEngine" stream processor derived from Cell/B.E.

I got all excited when I saw the Super Resolution example image, but clicking it just reveals a marketing illusion where they blurred the true image to create the 'low resolution' image. Suddenly I don't feel particularly interested in learning more about this platform from that link.

 

Is it really blurred or just the natural effect that occurs when you scale-up a small piece of an image to a much larger size?

 

Naw, in that link it seems pretty clear they used a full screen blur effect to create the "before" picture.

 

I guess I misunderstood- were you referring to the original being pre-blurred or the blow-up piece from the original that looks blurred, Shifty?

I thought you were referring to the latter, but maybe you guys are noting the former?

 

This image. the magnisifed sectrions in the ring show a native resolution image at the bottom and a blurred copy above. Something like Guassian blur of radius 3.5-4. They've also applied a sharpness filter to the 'Super-Resoution' photo. It's entirely a fabrication with no example of what the real engine achieves.

Looking further up the article though, they do show some more technical shots that are suggestive of an effective upscaling system. It just be nice to get some real example. If it's that good, I want to see it!

 

Definitely a fake. You cannot sharpen the features the way it has been sharpened here.

 

dont know how i missed this one ....or did i to many browser pages open lately....

did anyone with a card or intrigrated SpursEngine laptop try this free trial yet on H@L3.1 through H@L4.1 AVC Encoding and put up the resulting clips somewere to compare to the current x264 r1251 http://x264.nl/ AVC Encoding quality yet?, assuming this SpursEngine plugin can actually even do generic High Profile cabac encoding OC...

btw,if you dont want to be messing about with AviSynth scripts to feed x264 you might just use http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=141441
roozhou's current Direct264 r1251 - special x264 CLI build that supports input from DirectShow.

http://dvformat.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=810790
07/30/09
...
Pegasys Adds SpursEngine Functionality to Its TMPGEnc MovieStyle Software
SpursEngine Plug-In Upscales Standard Resolution Files or Quickly Encodes MPEG-2
& H.264 files to View Virtually Anywhere

(July 30, 2009) DMN Newswire--2009-7-30--Pegasys, Inc. (http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com) the company that makes digital video easy, has updated its TMPGEnc MovieStyle software to include SpursEngine functionality via the TMPGEnc Movie Plug-in SpursEngine (sold separately) and AVCHD file input support.

The Movie Plug-in enables high-speed, hardware H.264 and MPEG-2 encoding and standard video upscaling when used with devices embedded with the SpursEngine Media Streaming Processor from Toshiba®. AVCHD file input support lets users import footage from an AVCHD camcorder and convert it for their favorite digital device.

"We've already added SpursEngine functionality to our flagship video converter, TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress, but that is a very technical product," commented Tak Ebine, Pegasys CEO. �??By adding SpursEngine...
"
http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/te4xp_spurs.html

again it seems odd to me if the chip makers really want SpursEngine to take off, why they have Not seen fit to talk to and add any patches to FFmpeg,Mcoder, and x264 codebases ...

 

Thanks for the link one - surprisingly in depth, and the SpursEngine acquits itself quite well indeed. It would have been nice to have a GPU accelerated scenario to compete against as well, but for the specific purpose the card serves it was a good write-up. I'm actually surprised it turned up at Tom's Hardware as it would seem to me more niche than they usually go.

 

Yes, lack of a CUDA comparison makes it a floating review without a proper comparison base.

Is there still no word on Toshiba's SuperResolution+++ tech's quality? Surely, if it's good, they could license it out to upscaling convertors, which could increase the appeal of SPURSEngine cards.

 

Zoom in and enhance!

 

WinFast HPVC1111 Four Wheel Drive SpursEngine 4x4

ftp://ftp.leadtek.com/platform_solution/WinFast HPVC1111_Spec02222010.pdf

http://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20100417/etc_leadtek.html
http://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/515/515190/
http://akiba.kakaku.com/pc/1004/16/231500.php

 

16 SPUs at 1.8GHz? That's a pretty honking board! Those fans are probably noisy too. I'd rather have a large fan over multiple heatsinks.