NEW CHIP PRODUCES REAL-TIME, HIGH-QUALITY GRAPHICS

German researchers have developed a chip that can render complex graphics in real time. The chip could allow individuals or small organizations to easily perform complex graphics work. Currently, they must either use a single computer, which takes a long time to produce sophisticated graphics, or they must spend the money to have a cluster of computers yield results quickly.

Saarland University scientists have developed an algorithm that lets a chip rapidly perform ray tracing. This approach is an alternative to the rasterization techniques—used in most of today's graphics chips— that convert mathematical and digital information into a matrix of pixels.

Ray tracing is a sophisticated approach that renders images in 3D environments by tracing the paths that light rays would take through a scene and calculating the reflection, refraction, or absorption that would occur when they hit an object. Unlike rasterization, ray tracing yields the information needed to compute shadows, reflections, and other effects necessary for high-quality images.

However, ray tracing is resource intensive and thus, with complex graphics, takes a long time to work on a single PC or requires a cluster of machines to produce quick renderings.

The Saarland researchers developed an algorithm and chip architecture that let a ray-tracing processor render simple graphics at 20 frames per second and complex scenes at 10 fps using a 66-MHz field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

This is a tenfold increase over previous Saarland ray-tracing chips and would let a PC render complex scenes—in which many elements frequently move or otherwise change— in real time. Multiple FPGAs could be combined to increase performance further, noted Saarland Professor Philipp Slusallek.

He said the chip's architecture is highly parallel and its dedicated circuits could execute the ray-tracing algorithms more quickly than a CPU could. The FPGAs were suitable for prototyping because of their programmability, he explained.

Now, Slusallek noted, the researchers are developing ray-tracing application-specific integrated circuits. He said the ASICs, although more expensive and complex to design and produce, would be faster and could host more functionality than the FPGAs. The researchers have already simulated an ASIC design that runs at more than 300 MHz, he added.

The Saarland team has shown that inexpensive hardware can support ray tracing with very impressive performance, according to Nathan Carr, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "The research gives a glimpse into where the future of graphics might lead," he added.

Researchers have spun off a company, mrace, to commercialize the new technology. Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Skoda Auto, and Volkswagen are already using Saarland ray-tracing software for design projects.

V. Say if the following statements are true or false.

VI. Match parts of the sentences in columns A and B.

VII. Divide the text into logical parts and find the topical sentences in each part.

VIII. Give a short summary of text B.

Part C

I. Read the following text and entitle it.

1. Texas Instruments says it has developed the first system-on-chip that lets cellular phones play TV programs. When completed, TI’s Hollywood processor would combine analog radio-frequency circuitry that acts as a receiver with digital chips that process signals – performing such functions as analog-to-digital conversion, demodulation, and error correction – and decode channels for viewing by users.

2. In a TI-based phone, Hollywood sends the processed material to the company's ОМАР mobile-multimedia application platform, which provides the interface that Sets users select the desired content. ОМАР also separates the desired content from all of the other material being transmitted, performs video and audio decoding and screen formatting, and sends data to the display driver, explained Bill Krenik, TI’s wireless advanced architectures manager.

3. Integrating these functions in one processor eliminates the need for separate components. This is a "huge advantage," Krenik said, because offering these capabilities on one chip takes up less room, thereby enabling smaller phones, reducing power consumption, and lowering overall costs.

4. TI is using advanced technology, including state-of-the-art 90-nanometer feature sizes, in hopes of keeping Hollywood's cost below $10 per chip when it's produced in high volumes for commercial purposes. Minimizing a cellular phone's costs is a critical factor in the competitive, price-sensitive mobile-handset market.

5. Krenik said advances in display technology will help spur adoption as color screens become more suitable for TV-quality images.

6. Several companies have announced they willproduce content for TV-enabled cellular phones. For example, the Fox Entertainment Group and Vodafone plan to distribute a series consisting of 24 minute-long mobisodes (mobile episodes) in 23 countries beginning later this month.

7. New data-oriented services such as TV, rather than traditional voice services, may help troubled cellular providers, Krenik noted. Higher cellular usage has increased carriers' voice-related costs, while stiff competition has led them to drop rates and give away or subsidize expensive handsets.

8. According to Krenik, providers would generate revenue by selling TV programming on a pay-per-view or subscription basis.

9. In two years, he said, about 70 percent of cellular phones will have built-in digital TV receivers. Analyst Neil Strother with InStat/MDR, a market research firm, said TV phones could find audiences among mass-transit users and young consumers with the time to watch programming on their handsets. However, Strother added, the key questions are, "Will people pay extra for these phones, and how much more will they pay to watch more television?"

10. TI says that Hollywood samples could he available by the end of this year and that chips could be ready for testing in 2006 and for sale the following year. The US Federal Communications Commission and other standards bodies are involved.

11. TV phones are currently being tested in Asia, and observers expect Asia and Europe to adopt the handsets before the US.

Antenna					Service-provider interface
			UHF	Tuner	Analog-to-digital converter	Demodulator	Applications processor		LCD
						Inter-integrated circuit
				General-purpose interface
				Clock	Clock	Clock
						Phase lock loop

Texas Instrument has developed a system-on-chip that lets mobile phones play TV shows. The chip’s antenna receives the TV signal from a transmission tower. The tuner locks onto the signal and then tunes into the video feed. The analog-to-digital converter processes the video feed, which is demodulated into an MPEG stream. The applications processor then processes the stream and sends it to the LCD screen.

II. Answer the following questions on the contents of the text.

III. Find the information about TI’s Hollywood processor.

IV. Describe how a system-on-chip lets mobile phones play TV shows. Use the text and the given diagram.

V. Which paragraph contains information about the usage of TV phones in future?

VI. Give the main points of the text in 5-6 sentences.

UNIT 5

Part A