|
Editor's Note: I just received the following rather terse news release from the folks at Ambric (this is not good news ...see also my related blog #212101061):
Ambric, a leader in Massively Parallel Processor Arrays (MPPAs), has announced plans to sell the company including its product line, patents, and other assets. Ambric's programming model and silicon architecture provided the industry's first platform capable of delivering high performance media processing solutions several times faster than what is currently possible on DSPs and FPGAs. Each Ambric MPPA chip has 336 32-bit processors delivering over one TeraOPS of performance. One of Ambric's customers has developed an extremely high performance imaging system utilizing 36 Ambric chips – an array of over 12,000 processors managed under one software platform.
Ambric revolutionized the industry with the introduction of its Structured Object Programming Model (SOPM). The Ambric SOPM is so intuitive and easy to use, that it has enabled many customers to go to production in less than nine months with just one day of training. The time required from concept to launch for an Ambric based design is one-third the time of a DSP- or FPGA-based design. This time savings can cut millions of dollars in development costs and yield huge time-to-market advantages. Other processor-based alternatives employ software models so complex, they require the supplier to do the programming for the customer. With Ambric's SOPM, customers are able to develop solutions by themselves.
Ambric is the only MPPA to have successfully attained design wins in four distinct markets – video, wireless base stations, medical, and military/defense. Ambric's software development tools have been successfully used by this wide set of developers and by participants in Ambric's global university program to create software solutions that address: video codecs, protein docking, baseband processing for LTE and WiMax, medical ultrasound, complex tomography, and real-time 2D and 3D imaging applications for defense. The results of this work are a broad set of software library objects such as: broadcast video codecs including AVC-Intra, Avid DNxHD, Apple ProRes, DVCProHD, and DSP library objects including FFTs, IIRs, filters, convolutions, and Turbo Coders.
Ambric was unable to secure additional financing in the current economic environment and has suspended all operations not associated with the sale of the company or fulfillment of existing customer production requests through its long term supply agreements. Ambric also has suspended R&D of its future product – Avocet, targeted to launch in 2009 with 3.4 TeraOPS of processing power. Several companies to date have expressed interest in acquiring Ambric's products, technologies and software solutions. The company plans to keep servicing its customers after concluding the sale.
|
